An independent costs consultant retained to assess the legal fees sought to be recouped from a settlement in a class action over the collapse of Banksia Securities has denied he was the “dogsbody” of funder Mark Elliott during a fiery cross examination at trial over the costs of the litigation.
A week after silk Norman O’Bryan dropped his defence against allegations of misconduct in the running of a class action over the failure of Banksia Securities, his junior counsel, Michael Symons, has also conceded defeat, telling a court he too should be struck off the practitioners’ roll.
A judge has criticised a revised opt out notice in a class action against Suncorp over allegedly conflicted remuneration and again slammed the funder backing the case for sending a “disturbing” letter to group members contrived to achieve a commercial advantage.
An impending three-week trial for the Robodebt class action may be in danger due to stage 4 lockdown measures in place in Victoria to control a second wave of coronavirus cases, with the top lawyer for the class telling the court he might need to step down due to homeschooling obligations if the lockdown overlaps with the trial.
An appeals court has been urged to uphold a judge’s $125 million penalty against Volkswagen in the ACCC’s case over the car maker’s emissions cheating, with a court-appointed contradictor saying the judge was “starved” of the information he required to assess whether a $75 million agreement brokered by the consumer watchdog was reasonable.
The majority shareholder in insurance broker Coverforce has won its bid to use documents from an existing lawsuit over the company’s $25 million acquisition of Suncorp unit Resilium in new proceedings it intends to bring.
A judge has ordered that disputes arising between Transurban and a group of contractors over the discovery of toxic PFAS chemicals in the soil at the site of the multi-billion dollar West Gate Tunnel project in Melbourne be sent to arbitration.
A judge has slugged the Australia Workers’ Union with a $148,100 fine for artificially boosting member numbers in what he said was a “serious departure” from the record-keeping standards required by registered organisations under the Fair Work Act.
An error in an opt out notice sent to motorists eligible to sign up for a class action over allegedly defective diesel filters in Toyota vehicles has left a class action law firm on the hook for indemnity costs to cover a new notice to group members.
A former QRx Pharma director’s prediction that shareholders would not receive “anything of consequence” from a class action settlement has proven true, with only a small slice of the $7 million settlement expected to go to shareholders.