Class Action Information
Class action lawyers
Current class actions
Past class actions
Class actions allow the claims to be aggregated into a single action against a Defendant. Aggregation can increase the efficiency of the legal process, and allows you to recover losses more efficiently and at less cost. The importance of undertaking class actions for Shine Lawyers is that they empower everyday Australians to stand up against large corporations or private enterprises and redress the wrong committed against them through the justice process.
A class action may also encourage an individual prosecuting his or her rights for small recoveries. In other words, a class action ensures a wrong doer who engages in widespread harm, which impacts minimally against the individual, must compensate the individual for their injuries. Furthermore, in ‘limited fund’ cases, a class action ensures that all plaintiffs receive relief and the assets recovered may be divided equitably by the court amongst all the plaintiffs in a successful case.
Class actions have become a vehicle for social and economic reform. Many of the leading civil rights cases, for example, were commenced by class action. The class action is also used to protect individuals from injury and is widely utilized in mass tort cases, where numerous plaintiffs are injured at the hands of a single defendant.
The legislation behind class actions differs in each state and may involve Federal law. It is also a complex legal process by involving multi-party actions therefore, it is important that a class action be conducted by a law firm with the suitable resources and experience.
Shine Lawyers is one of Australia’s leading class action law firms dedicated to the pursuit of class action claims. We employ innovative group and class action procedures to successfully resolve numerous class actions solely on the behalf of plaintiffs.
Over the past few years, we have conducted some high profile class actions including; sexual abuse matters at major private schools and churches, the McDonald's McMatch and Win" controversy, and the Toowoomba Prep School case which, sparked the Peter Hollingworth scandal. We are also representing a number of Collingwood Park residents in their pursuit of compensation from the state government following the subsidence event which occurred on 26 Aril 2008.
One prominent class action you may recognise is that which inspired the movie Erin Brockovich. It involved 1,500 people who lived or worked near three PG & E gas-compressor plants. The case contended that their water supplies were contaminated with harmful levels of cancer-causing chromium 6 for over 30 years, it settled for $333 million in 1996.
Shine Lawyers have been fortunate enough to recruit the experience and knowledge of Erin Brockovich the catalyst environmental researcher for the PG&E Hinkley case for a similar class action against Alcoa, an international mining giant. The inhabitants of Yarloop, a small community south of Perth, suffer from a range of health problems that they attribute to emissions from an Alcoa bauxite refinery.
• Alcoa Refinery Class Action
• ABC Cancer Cluster Class Action
• Collingwood Park Class Action
• Qantas Class Action
• McDonalds ‘Scratch n Win’ Competition Class Action
• Toowoomba Grammar Class Action
• Brisbane Boys College (BBC) Class Action
• Brisbane Grammar School Class Action
• St Paul’s School Class Action
• Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie) Class Action
• Catholic Church Abuse (Father McArdle and Father Creen) Class Action
• St Josef’s Home, Neerkol Orphanage Class Action
• Cunningham Gap bus crash disaster Class Action
• Queensland Rail (QR) Tilt Train Crash Class Action
• Multiplex building collapse Class Action
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