Counsel for a class action against Arnold Bloch Leibler alleging negligence over advice to Slater & Gordon has criticised the law firm’s barrister for seeking more time to file a possible dismissal application because he was “only briefed yesterday”, saying the excuse had become an all too frequent one.
The High Court has shut down a lawsuit by mortgage aggregator Connective Services over the transfer of one third of the company’s shares after finding the proceeding prejudiced shareholders and contravened the Corporations Act.
The Suncorp Group unit and directors at the centre of a class action over allegedly conflicted remuneration have slammed the case as “misconceived” and argue it was not validly commenced.
An appeals court has upheld a ruling that found two firms previously run by Joseph “Diamond Joe” Gutnik and his family were insolvent, ending a long-running battle over hundreds of millions of dollars in mining assets.
An investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has come under fire by the banks and directors targeted in a criminal case over alleged cartel conduct that claim the regulator “contaminated” key evidence and improperly used material supplied by ASIC.
A judge overseeing a settled class action against failed Banksia Securities has rejected an application to limit a contradictor’s investigation of alleged professional misconduct on the part of the legal team and funder behind the case, saying he was satisfied there was a proper basis for the allegations.
Lawyers for former Citigroup executive Stephen Roberts have complained that prosecutors have failed to provide a “shred of material” to explain his alleged involvement in a criminal cartel relating to ANZ’s $2.5 billion capital raising, as the defendants fight to grill Crown witnesses before trial.
The prudential regulator is standing by its decision to bring proceedings against IOOF for alleged breaches of superannuation duties, despite criticism that such a “highly litigious regulatory environment” is placing immense pressure on financial services executives.
APRA’s purely documentary case against troubled fund manager IOOF has been dismissed by the Federal Court as “unpersuasive”, “fundamentally inadequate” and “tenuous in the extreme”, in another major blow to financial services regulators pursuing action in the wake of the banking royal commission.
An elite Melbourne law firm has become the latest target of Slater & Gordon shareholders whose stock went south after the plaintiffs firm’s disastrous $1.2 billion acquisition of UK professional services outfit Quindell, facing a class action alleging it was negligent in its role conducting due diligence for the deal.