Advice from non-lawyers and “routed” through a legal practitioner at multidisciplinary partnership PricewaterhouseCoopers cannot be shielded under legal professional privilege, the Federal Court has found.
A judge has rejected the Australian Taxation Office’s claim that legal professional privilege does not apply to any communications between PricewaterhouseCoopers and its client, meat processor JBS, but has found that many of the reviewed documents do not satisfy the test of privilege.
Another fight over privilege may be on the cards in a shareholder class action over the collapse of the Hastie Group, with Deloitte flagging its partners may claim privilege over certain parts of the accounting giant’s evidence.
Logistics company GetSwift will argue on appeal that a judge who found the company took a “PR-driven approach” to ASX statements was wrong in his assessment of whether those statements contained material omissions.
Logistics company GetSwift and its directors are appealing a win for ASIC in the regulator’s case that alleged they breached their continuous disclosure obligations and engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in the release of 22 ASX announcements.
A settlement in a shareholder class action against GetSwift has collapsed as the logistics company seeks to secure financing to keep it afloat and pay the final portion of the deal’s $1.5 million cash component.
A settlement agreement in a shareholder class action against GetSwift may be scrapped as the applicant seeks more information as to whether the logistics company is solvent or about to go under.
The law firms and barristers who defended former Dick Smith directors in sprawling litigation over the failure of the electronics retailer earned close to $68 million in fees, a court has heard.
Class action settlement totals skyrocketed to over $900 million last year, and one law firm negotiated the lion’s share, with $672 million in settlements under its belt.
National Australia Bank and HSBC should be “jointly and severally liable” to pay a portion of the costs of a failed case brought by Dick Smith’s receivers against the company’s former directors because the banks stood to gain financially if the lawsuit was successful, the NSW Supreme Court has heard.