Running a law firm is not without risk, chief among them staring down a lawsuit by a client, an ex-partner or employee, even a rival firm. Last year, Australian firms faced numerous actions alleging everything from sex discrimination to negligence.
The founder of defunct whitegoods distributor Kleenmaid faces jail time after a jury on Friday found him guilty of 19 charges of fraud and insolvent trading relating to the collapse of the company, including a $13 million fraud on Westpac.
Companies and other defendants forked over big sums last year to settle more than 20 class actions, with a total of at least $734 million being paid out. Here are the top 10 class action settlements and the law firms and funders that negotiated them.
The liquidators of Melbourne-based forex trader Berndale Capital have filed examination proceedings in the Federal Court seeking to question the company’s former CEO and its other directors.
A judge has given his seal of approval to a $29 million settlement that resolves a class action over Radio Rentals’ Rent, Try, $1 Buy scheme alleging customers were kept in the dark about the true cost of their rentals.
The High Court has granted special leave to cartridge reseller Calidad after the company lost an intellectual property dispute with printer giant Seiko Epson and was hit with a general injunction barring it from further patent infringement.
Australia’s law firms are stepping up in response to the bushfire crisis across the country, pledging money, pro bono work — even P2 masks — to support those hardest hit.
Former senator David Leyonhjelm is appealing a ruling that socked him with a $120,000 damages bill in a defamation case brought by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, and has hired a new solicitor to bring the challenge.
Defunct Dover Financial, which faces a penalty hearing next year after it was found to have misled customers with an inaptly titled ‘client protection policy’, can bring an application for evidence from the corporate regulator that the policy did not harm anyone.
Not bowed by its defeat against Westpac in a case over alleged responsible lending breaches, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has brought action against Volkswagen alleging similar violations of the credit laws in relation to almost 50,000 car loans over three years.