A national law firm has dodged an application for access to the files of its current and former clients brought by lawyers investigating a possible class action over allegedly excessive legal costs in personal injury litigation.
ASIC has dropped its fight with Westpac over the bank’s financial assessment of home loan borrowers following political pressure, citing the “challenging economic circumstances”.
ASIC has called for a $15 million penalty against National Australia Bank over its scandal-ridden ‘Introducer’ loan referral program, but a judge has questioned the “superficial” investigations in the case and remarked on the corporate regulator’s “pattern” of bringing enforcement action after remediation programs were well underway.
A ‘sham contracting’ class action against fundraiser Appco, said to be worth $90 million, could be settled in two weeks, the lawyer for the lead applicant told a judge on Monday.
Venture capitalist Elaine Stead has refused to go into a second round of mediation in her defamation case against the Nine-owned Fairfax Media Publications saying it would be a “waste of time”.
Elderly victims of Ponzi schemer Bradley Sherwin have told the government’s class action inquiry of their “horrendous class action journey”, which led to a “pathetic outcome” in which the majority of a $12 million settlement with the Bank of Queensland went to the law firm and funder behind the case.
A hearing in the Federal Government’s latest inquiry into class actions kicked off Monday with attacks on the credibility of one of the heads of Liberal think tank the Menzies Research Centre, who was excoriated by a Labor senator for providing “unsubstantiated” data from Herbert Smith Freehills that group members receive on average 39 per cent of class action proceeds.
A judge has warned counsel leading a shareholder class action against logistics provider GetSwift that “real persuasion” would be needed to convince him to allow the class to expand its case two months out from trial.
A judge has pushed off a heated contest between law firms vying to lead a shareholder class action against construction giant Boral for what could be a year as a landmark High Court challenge plays out.
A judge on Friday dismissed Westpac’s bid for an update from litigation funder JustKapital as to whether it continues to financially back a class action against the bank over allegedly excessive insurance premiums.