Maurice Blackburn and Bannister Law have reached an agreement to settle the Australian class actions against Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda over the diesel emissions issue. If approved by the Federal Court of Australia, the Volkswagen Group has, without admission of liability, agreed to pay between AU$87 million and AU$127.1 million to eligible Australian motorists plus legal costs and other payments.
The registration process to claim a settlement payment has now opened. Please click Register above in order to register your claim. In order to claim a settlement payment, you must register your claim even if you have previously registered your details with Maurice Blackburn or Bannister Law.
The deadline to register your claim is 10 March 2020. If you fail to register by that date, you will not be entitled to receive any settlement payment.
More detail about the proposed settlement is contained in the Settlement Notice, which has been approved by the Federal Court of Australia and is available here. The settlement itself must still be approved by the Federal Court before it can be implemented and before any settlement payments can be made.
A copy of the settlement scheme is also available here.
Under the settlement, any person who held an interest in an affected 1.6 or 2.0 litre “EA189” diesel engine Volkswagen, Audi or Skoda vehicle as at either 18 September 2015 or 3 October 2015 is eligible to claim a settlement payment. Most commonly, an “interest” in an affected vehicle will mean ownership of the vehicle as at either of those dates. It may also mean certain types of lease.
You can check whether you have a vehicle affected by the diesel emissions issue by entering its VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) in the "Register" tab above.
In order to claim a settlement payment, you need to register your claim. You must register your claim even if you have previously registered your details with Maurice Blackburn or Bannister Law.
You can register your claim for a settlement payment by clicking the "Register" tab above and following the instructions.
Please note that you will be required to provide the following information to complete your claim, which we recommend finding or obtaining before you begin the registration process:
The VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) for your affected vehicle
If you leased the affected vehicle from somebody else or to somebody else, the lease agreement or contract
If you are registering the claim on behalf of an entity or another person (such as a business or company or somebody without legal capacity), authorisation to register the claim on their behalf
You may also be required to provide documentation demonstrating that you held an interest in the affected vehicle as at either 18 September 2015 or 3 October 2015. In the event of this, we encourage you to provide a certificate of registration for the vehicle, which records its VIN and your name, from before and after either of those dates.
For a fast answer to your question, we suggest checking the "FAQs" tab above.
For further information or if you have any other questions, please contact our team by email at vw@mauriceblackburn.com.au or by telephone on 1800 517 397.
Please note that Maurice Blackburn will be closed from 23 December 2019 and reopening on 2 January 2020. We appreciate your patience during this time and note that you will have until 10 March 2020 to register your claim for a settlement payment.