Barristers

In a win for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, a judge has found that payday lender Sunshine Loans charged thousands of customers prohibited fees, issuing a scathing judgment condemning the company’s “wrongheaded” conduct.

A class action against the Murray Darling Basin Authority over alleged negligent water management is seeking to claim a funder’s commission as damages after a judge refused the first-ever such bid in a separate group proceeding. 

ASX-listed gourmet food company Maggie Beer has been dragged to court by the founders of Hampers & Gifts Australia over a $10 million earnout that was part of a $40 million agreement to acquire the e-commerce company in 2021. 

Attacks at trial on the credibility of Bruce Lehrmann hit their target, but it’s still his case to lose on Monday morning, when judgment is delivered on his defamation claims against Ten. Throughout the case the network has borne the burden of proving Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation was true, and it is the very seriousness of that allegation that made the task harder.

A former director of Noumi has won his challenge to the food manufacturer’s claim for legal professional privilege over a PricewaterhouseCoopers report commissioned by its lawyers at Ashurst, with a judge finding the company waived privilege by disclosing it to Australian Securities and Investments Commission. 

A judge has approved a group costs order in a shareholder class action against building materials giant James Hardie Industries, giving firm Echo Law a 27.5 per cent cut of any proceeds from the case.

Dental aligner maker Invisalign has won an appeal of a decision rejecting its case accusing SmileDirectClub of misleading consumers, but the appeals court noted that the prospect of a new trial was “remote” after its competitor went under.

An underpayments class action brought by postgraduate research candidates at the University of Sydney is facing another summary dismissal bid from the federal government, as the university foreshadows a novel argument that the group members are not employees.

Advisory firm Lanterne Fund, which operated as a ‘licensee for hire’, has been hit with a $1.25 million penalty for breaching its obligations as a financial services licence holder.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is challenging a decision that Finder Wallet did not need a financial services licence to sell its defunct cryptocurrency product.