This Month
Maurice Blackburn losses mount amid class action failures
Contingency fees were expected to boost plaintiff firms, but the recent reversal in results has exposed the high-risk, high-reward strategy.
February
Ambulance chasers circle Slater and Gordon over email leak
Hopefully the firm has learnt something about being on the other side in its long history of fighting similar matters on behalf of workers.
High Court win for law firm over billionaire’s private company
Atanaskovic Hartnell closed off a second near decade-long legal battle in a matter of months, ahead of a busy year for the High Court.
January
Rio bosses asked staff to ‘limit’ emailing news of cost blowout
Internal documents provided to a New York court suggest the company pushed discussions about the troubled Oyu Tolgoi project onto encrypted messaging platforms.
December 2024
BHP’s Samarco class action shrinks as Brazilians quit
Four municipalities have exited a $36 billion compensation claim against the mining giant in the British courts in favour of alternative compensation.
‘No taxi driver likes Uber much’: Uneasy truce in cabs trial
Uber users in Sydney and Melbourne can now get regular taxis on the app. Cabbies see the benefit, but it is an uneasy truce between the transport arch enemies.
Why top litigators are worried about a Dutton government
Litigation funders are worried about a crackdown on class action funding if the Coalition wins next year’s election.
November 2024
WiseTech allegedly misled investors over ‘aggressive’ earnings targets
In a new class action, Phi Finney McDonald alleges that shareholders in the software company suffered after it missed earlier profit guidance in 2020.
October 2024
Chickenpox and faded flowers: BHP challenges size of $70b lawsuit
BHP alleges some of the 620,000 bids for compensation rest on spurious claims, as part of a courtroom push to cut back the English class action’s colossal size.
‘Relentless pursuit of profits’: BHP lawsuit opens in London
The miner and class action lawyers Pogust Goodhead locked horns in court, but the protesters and TV crews gathered outside suggest a PR battle is also afoot.
BHP faces down 620,000 Brazilians as Samarco class action kicks off
A British court will on Monday start a trial that was six years in the making. There’s $70 billion at stake, but some claimants say it’s not about money.
BHP tables $45bn plan to settle Brazilian quest for dam disaster cash
On the eve of a $70 billion class action in England, BHP has upped its parallel compensation offer to the Brazilian authorities over the 2015 Samarco disaster.
BHP gets fillip from Brazil as $70b UK class action looms
As the case against BHP over a 2015 mining disaster looms in London next Monday, a Brazilian court casts doubt on the law firm’s contracts with some clients.
Shareholder class actions plunge after prominent corporate victories
Only two new shareholder claims were filed in the first half of this year, as law firms await the outcome of a High Court special leave application on contingency fees.
Business elite reaps the rewards of stolen wages cases
There’s a certain irony, and sadness, that it takes a rapacious firm looking to “maximise returns” for its wealthy backers to get governments to empty their pockets.
September 2024
Class action skewers Rio Tinto’s Bougainville redemption
A secretive company is disrupting efforts to finally make amends for the environmental devastation caused by its copper mine in Bougainville some 30 years ago.
August 2024
Fox Sports, AFL, NRL sued in US over alleged misuse of Meta tracking
The legal actions centre around the use of a monitoring tool on subscription services to watch the football codes outside Australia.
NSW’s top judge takes aim at Victoria on class actions
NSW Chief Justice Andrew Bell says the introduction of contingency fees in Victoria has “skewed” the market for class actions.
Lawyer fees for class action against BHP top $680 million
BHP’s portion of the costs for the 22-week trial are forecast to be about £108 million, according to documents filed with Britain’s High Court.
July 2024
Rich Lister-owned home building empire faces $100m class action
West Australian construction company BGC Housing Group – founded by the late Len Buckeridge and still controlled by the family – is facing a class action from potentially thousands of aggrieved home owners.