William Edwards

A judge has granted a law firm’s bid for a group costs order in a shareholder class action against payments processing company EML, but has trimmed its proposed cut of any recovery after comparing it to the contingency fee rate the firm accepted in another class action.

Insurers will file de-classing applications in four class actions on behalf of small businesses seeking coverage under business interruption policies for losses flowing from COVID-19 restrictions after their test cases largely failed. 

Boral has won its bid to shield from shareholders in a class action three investigative reports, including one by accounting giant EY, concerning financial irregularities in the construction company’s North America windows business.

A judge has cut a funder’s commission by 33 per cent after approving a $20 million settlement in a sham contracting class action against telco contractor BSA Limited, finding that funders should receive “significantly lower” payouts in employment cases.

A judge has questioned a tiered contingency fee arrangement in a proposed group costs order by the law firm running a shareholder class action against Crown, asking whether the lower-end percentages were “meaningless”.

The High Court has dismissed an application by accounting giant KPMG to transfer a class action over the collapse of mining company Arrium from Victoria to NSW.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has argued that disclosing its money laundering failures before AUSTRAC brought proceedings would have misled the market, as the bank takes the rare move of defending a shareholder class action at trial.

While CBA’s defence to a shareholder class action argues the bank did not need to disclose money laundering failures because it doubted AUSTRAC would take legal action, communications show it was drafting a defence six months before proceedings started, a trial has heard.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia knew about a “catastrophic” code error that caused widespread non-compliance with money laundering rules two years before it was disclosed to the market, a court has been told in a rare shareholder class action trial.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia faces trial Monday in one of several class actions filed against a major Australian company in recent years over allegedly lax money laundering practices and disclosures.