Elizabeth Collins

A shareholder class action that was filed in the wake of the banking royal commission over AMP’s fees-for-no-service practices has settled for $110 million. 

A judge overseeing four COVID-19 business interruption class actions has questioned a decision by insurers to use ten test cases to resolve the issue of whether they had to indemnify policyholders instead of a class action, which would have been binding. 

As the knives come out in a contest between four law firms battling to run an $80 million class action against Star Entertainment, a court-appointed barrister has named his favourites – one of which has proposed a contingency fee of just 14 per cent.

Three firms fighting for carriage of a $80 million class action against Star Entertainment say a group costs order would guard against ‘costs blowouts’ in the case and have urged a judge to ditch a no win, no fee proposal brought by fourth-to-file firm Shine Lawyers.

It was “fundamentally wrong” that AMP Financial Planning paid consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers significantly more to review a court-ordered remediation than was paid to customers who suffered loss after an adviser churned life insurance policies for higher commissions, a judge has said.

A sacked Greenwoods & Herbert Smith Freehills partner seeking $13 million in compensation from his former firm and Lendlease has been criticised for claiming that whistleblower protections introduced in 2019 “wouldn’t make sense” if they did not apply retroactively.

A judge has approved a walk-away settlement with two former directors of RCR Tomlinson in a shareholder class action against the failed engineering company.

A judge hearing a lawsuit by an ex-Greenwoods & Herbert Smith Freehills partner seeking $13 million in compensation from his former firm and Lendlease has ordered that the court first decide whether new whistleblower protections apply retrospectively.

The former chief executive of Commonwealth Bank has told a court internal auditors raised issues with CBA’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing compliance four years before AUSTRAC took action that saw the bank’s share price plummet.

A judge overseeing a class action over AMP’s fees for no service practice has dismissed the applicant’s bid to access communications between AMP and law firm Clayton Utz that led up to an ostensibly independent report that allegedly went through 25 rounds of edits with the wealth manager’s inhouse lawyers.