Shine Lawyers is investigating two new class actions against Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac’s BT Funds Management over allegedly excessive insurance premiums, a week after filing a similar case against AMP’s life insurance arm.
Westpac anti-money laundering compliance troubles continue to worsen, with the bank reporting an additional 365,000 incomplete or inaccurate threshold transaction reports to AUSTRAC.
A senior officer from the ACCC has rejected claims that the regulator took legal advice from immunity applicant JPMorgan before launching its high profile criminal cartel case against ANZ, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank.
A former high-ranking Deutsche Bank executive charged with involvement in an alleged cartel agreement relating to a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement claims he was dragged into the case becaused of the “incredibly slapdash” methods of the ACCC.
ANZ Banking Group has slammed a decision by the ACCC to escalate concerns that one of its key cartel witnesses was not being “full and frank”, claiming this was a way to put pressure on the witness and bring his evidence into line.
The ACCC’s investigatory techniques have come under fire during a hearing over an alleged criminal cartel agreement between ANZ and two investment banks, with a barrister for one of the banks suggesting investigators from the regulator deliberately did not take notes during hundreds of days of witness interviews to avoid disclosure.
Despite receiving immunity in a criminal cartel case against ANZ and two other investment banks, JPMorgan has disputed the existence of any cartel agreement since the early days of the ACCC’s investigations, a court has heard.
The judge hearing a class action trial against Ford over its allegedly defective Powershift transmission has rejected the car maker’s argument that certain documents should be suppressed because they hold trade secrets, saying Ford did not invent the 6 Sigma problem solving method on which some of the reports were based.
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.
Legislation passed by Victoria state lawmakers lifting the ban on contingency fees in class actions will not lead to US-style litigation entrepreneurialism, but it may also not have the desired effect of encouraging smaller and more risky claims, experts told Lawyerly.