An appeals court has sided with the tax office in a dispute against two corporate limited partnerships formed in the Cayman Islands, finding that ATO tax assessments issued for the sale of shares in global mining company Talison Lithium were valid and correct.
Electricity retailer Click Energy has been ordered to pay $900,000 in penalties for misleading consumers about discounts on their energy bills.
Maurice Blackburn has not given up its fight with the Australian Taxation Office over a multimillion dollar tax liability on record-setting class action payout for Black Saturday bushfire victims.
Two rulings Friday keeping alive the common fund order are a ringing endorsement by the courts of the important role that litigation funders play in class actions, experts say, and have paved the way for more funded post-Hayne consumer litigation against banks and other financial services firms this year.
Common fund orders in class actions are legal and not unconstitutional, six judges found Friday after a history-making joint sitting of two appeals courts.
Maurice Blackburn has lost a long-running fight with the Australian Taxation Office over a tax bill on two massive class action settlements secured by the firm for thousands of Black Saturday bushfire victims.
A judge’s decision to halt questioning about ASIC emails in a class action trial over the 2008 collapse of finance group Octaviar didn’t shut the case down, the Public Trustee of Queensland has told the Full Federal Court, calling the appeal of the class action’s dismissal “completely misconceived”.
Critical emails from ASIC regarding a $250 million loan facility to Octaviar Group before its 2008 collapse were not only overlooked by the Public Trustee of Queensland in its role overseeing the firm’s finances but were wrongly deemed irrelevant by the judge that heard the case, the Full Federal Court was told.
Common fund orders are the completion of the notion of class actions envisaged when the regime was introduced 27 years ago, a joint-sitting of two appeals courts was told on the second and last day of a landmark challenge to what has become an oft-used case management tool by trial judges.
An appeal before a historic joint sitting of two courts over so-called common fund orders in class actions kicked off Monday with a full bench of six judges and a packed courtroom hearing arguments by eminent barristers for BMW and Westpac that the orders are either preemptive or pointless.