Shine Lawyers has beaten out class action rival Piper Alderman in a battle to lead a class action worth up to $463 million against collapsed wealth managers Dixon Advisory, with a judge finding the firm’s no win, no fee model was likely to result in a greater return to group members.
Challenging a ruling that tossed half the charges brought against direct bank Members Equity, prosecutors have told an appeals court the ASIC Act does not impose a strict deadline for bringing a criminal case of misleading or deceptive conduct.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has hit back at a $45 million lawsuit alleging it failed to provide thousands of employees with paid rest breaks for at least six years, saying it had no responsibility to schedule or roster the breaks.
Debt collection agency A&M Group, trading as Debt Negotiators, has admitted it unduly harassed and coerced debtors by repeatedly contacting family, friends and employers and claiming they could face imprisonment.
A proposed consolidation of two class actions against collapsed wealth manager Dixon Advisory has hit a snag, with Shine Lawyers wanting to ensure group members who have signed up for its no win, no fee proceeding don’t get stuck paying the commission of the funder backing its rival’s case.
The founder of wholesale food company Hudson Pacific has sued PricewaterhouseCoopers for allegedly providing bad advice on the terms of the $88 million sale of his business to Retail Food Group in 2016.
The judge overseeing the scandal-ridden Banksia Securities class action has questioned why a solicitor on record for the case hasn’t handed over his ill-gotten fees despite professed regret for his actions and his claims to have reformed.
The behaviour of the legal team running the Banksia Securities class action was “reprehensible” and the solicitor who allowed himself to be controlled by lawyer and funder Mark Elliott should be struck from the court’s roll of practitioners, a judge heard Tuesday.
AMP has admitted two of its units charged customers fees for no service but denied it acted unconscionably in a case brought by the corporate regulator alleging it continued to charge advice fees and life insurance premiums to customers who had died.
A solicitor fighting to remain on the roll after his involvement in the infamous Banksia Securities class action has told of his regret at having lunch with the funder behind the case eight years ago — a meeting that set in motion a plot driven by lawyers to deceive seven Supreme Court judges and defraud thousands of investors.