Sam Matthews

The former legal representatives of James Mawhinney have hit back at allegations of incompetence by the embattled Mayfair 101 founder on the last day of his appeal against decisions that saw him banned from soliciting funds or promoting any financial product for 20 years.

A judge has ruled that separate breaches of statutory building warranties do not create individual causes of action, in a win for an owners corporation bringing claims against the builder of an allegedly defective Haymarket apartment building.

Cricket Australia says the COVID-19 pandemic was a force majeure event under its broadcast agreement with the Seven Network, which has sued the sporting governing body over alleged breaches of the deal.

A report commissioned by the Supreme Court of Victoria has recommended a massive overhaul to the system for awarding costs in civil proceedings, trashing the “opaque” and “inadequate” scale of costs system.

A consolidated class action’s bid to include claims concerning dairy company a2 Milk’s disclosures to the New Zealand stock exchange is in doubt, despite broad agreement between the parties that the claims can be pursued in Victoria.

Law firms Shine Lawyers and Phi Finney McDonald have won a contest to jointly run a class action against embattled tech company Nuix, with rival Banton Group losing out on its “opaque” funding agreement.

Failed asset manager Blue Sky Alternative Investments has been served with a class action over the company’s alleged overstated financial reports between 2016 and 2018 that also targets nine former directors as well as auditors Ernst & Young.

The death last year of a protagonist in the drama has not ended the legal spat between the children of one of Australia’s richest families over a deed of settlement intended to resolve a family feud over assets.

The founder of beleaguered investment group Mayfair 101, James Mawhinney, has argued that multiple law firms failed to advise him of the privilege against self-exposure to penalty in proceedings brought by the corporate regulator, which saw him banned from soliciting funds or promoting any financial product for 20 years.

A judge has ordered that the ACCC’s case alleging Retail Food Group misled franchisees be run on a sample basis, saying the regulator’s opposition to the idea “smacks of a lack of confidence in its own case.”