A judge has handed ASIC a “narrow” win in its action against former Tennis Australia director Harold Mitchell, tossing most of the regulator’s case and accusing it of “confirmatory bias”.
The judge overseeing a trial over legal fees and funding commission in the Banksia Securities class action has questioned whether the lawyers behind the case should remain on the roll of practitioners if allegations of misconduct aired in the hearing so far — which include billing for phantom costs — are made out.
Liquidators for collapsed steel and mining giant Arrium have successfully appealed a court ruling permitting the examination of a former director for a possible shareholder class action, with the Court of Appeal for the NSW Supreme Court finding the “private nature” of the claims was an abuse of process.
A judge has narrowed discovery in a class action against the Commonwealth of Australia over allegedly unlawful Robodebt payments, criticising the lead applicants for persisting with an approach to discovery that “was not a particularly helpful one”.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has come up short in its challenge to a ruling that dismissed its case against TPG over contract terms that allowed the internet provider to keep customers’ unused prepaid funds on phone or internet plans.
The law firm behind a long-running class action against Pitcher Partners over its auditing of Slater and Gordon is seeking court approval to drop the case, leaving the funder that bankrolled the proceeding to defend an application for indemnity costs.
Lawyer Mark Elliott was the “puppet master” behind the Banksia class action, retaning an old school mate to represent the lead applicant but in reality funding and running the proceedings with barristers Norman O’Bryan SC and Michael Symons to line their pockets at the expense of group members, a court has been told.
Tile maker Ceramiche Caesar has prevailed in its challenge to a judge’s ruling allowing building products manufacturer Caesarstone to register two trade marks despite a finding that they were deceptively similar to one of its marks.
The funder and legal team behind a class action over the collapse of Banksia Securities billed for phantom costs in a āfraudulent schemeā to secure almost $20 million from the case, the contradictor investigating the purported misconduct has told a court.
A court has granted ASIC’s bid to wind up an illegal managed investment scheme whose operators fled to India following the “systematic misappropriation” of almost $7 million in investor funds.