A Victorian barrister has reached a settlement on the eve of trial in a breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit brought by a former client who lost a court case over a $24.5 million real estate dispute.
A lawsuit seeking to increase D&O insurance for sandalwood producer Quintis in the wake of a class action settlement has fallen short of the $40 million in additional coverage sought, but a Federal Court decision may see a further $11.25 million go to group members.
A Melbourne law firm and barrister will soon face trial over allegations of breach of fiduciary duty brought by a former client who lost a lawsuit over a $24.5 million property joint venture.
A $25 million settlement has been reached in three long-running shareholder class actions over the collapse of electronics retailer Dick Smith, under which the funders that backed the litigation will not recover their costs and shareholders recoveries will be small.
Payouts in class actions in 2020 largely kept pace with the previous year despite the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, with companies and other defendants paying more than $696 million to settle class actions last year.
Class action experts have knocked several recommendations from the Parliamentary Joint Committee for reforming the class action system, including that group members be guaranteed at least 70 per cent of any settlement or judgment, saying this would be challenging to implement and could make disputes harder to resolve.
The law firm behind a class action against German manufacturer 3A Composites over allegedly combustible cladding is seeking to add a new representative group member to cover the claims of owners of property with Alucobond panels.
A judge overseeing two class actions over allegedly flammable combustible cladding used in buildings throughout Australia says he will likely keep the trials separate to avoid a ‘behemoth’ hearing.
The son of the funder behind a class action at the centre of scandalous misconduct claims says he would have sought advice from a family friend if he had realised his father and counsel leading the case were misleading the court to inflate their profits from a $64 million settlement.
Solicitor Alex Elliott has said it never clicked with him that members of the legal team running the Banksia class action were misleading an appeals court when his father — the mastermind behind the alleged deception — told him to sign cheques for lawyers that they could not cash.