A judge has lashed out at the legal team behind a class action against S&P over allegedly misleading credit ratings for filing hearsay evidence in support of an application to serve the ratings giant overseas, saying that “nobody who is a first year law student” would say the evidence was admissible.
A Victoria Supreme Court judge hearing two competing class actions against Allianz Australia over “junk” insurance has asked the parties for feedback on what she should consider at a hearing on a request for a group costs order, which would allow the plaintiff lawyers to earn a cut of any settlement or judgment, the first such request made since Victoria legalised contingency fees.
The group providing funding to claimants in a class action against the federal government over its 2011 ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia does not have to comply with new rules requiring litigation funders to obtain an AFSL and operate as a managed investment scheme in order to sign up new group members.
The litigation funder embroiled in a contractual dispute with a lead applicant in a class action against S&P Global is a stranger to the proceeding and has no right to demand to be served an application to pause the case pending the outcome of the contract spat, a judge has said.
One of the lead applicants in a class action against ratings giant S&P Global, which is involved in a dispute with the funder that’s backing the case, wants to look at the funding agreement signed by the class action’s other lead applicant.
Forty-four barristers have ascended to the senior counsel ranks in NSW and Victoria, including the barrister that represented Geoffrey Rush in his high-profile defamation victory and a member of the legal team that successfully defended Westpac against ASIC’s infamous ‘Wagyu beef and shiraz’ case.
A new class action against S&P Global is facing potential delays as the two lead applicants — one embroiled in a battle over its funding agreement — ready for a fight over when to serve the lawsuit on the global ratings agency.
The Federal Government will not challenge a ruling in a class action brought on behalf of live exporters which found a total ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia in 2011 was “capricious and unreasonable”.
Three law firms will represent the insurers in new proceedings launched to resolve a $46 million insurance question delaying settlement of two shareholder class actions against sandlewood producer Quintis, bringing the total number of law firms working on the class action to eight.
The lead applicant in a class action against the Federal Government over its total ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia in 2011 has been awarded $2.9 million, potentially exposing the government to hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.