The cost consultant joined as a defendant in the trial over alleged misconduct by the Banksia class action legal team has died, the second person implicated in the fee scandal to die this year.
Lawyer Alex Elliott was complicit in a plan by his late father to mislead the court and group members in the Banksia class action, to conceal conflicts of interest and to profit from the case at the expense of debenture holders, a judge has been told.
Engineering company Howden Australia can view the laptop and other electronic devices of an employee accused of stealing confidential information, after a judge found there was evidence suggesting the worker had not been “entirely truthful” with the court.
The Murray Goulburn class action run by Elliott Legal bears similarities to the Banksia class action, a case rife with scandal and offered up by opponents as proof of the problems with the class action regime. The leading lawyers were the same in both cases. In one they have abandoned any claim to their fees and have walked away from their careers. In the other they walked away with $5 million.
An appeals court has dismissed a second bid by lawyer Alex Elliott to have the judge overseeing the Banksia class action disqualified from hearing claims that he, like his late father, was party to an alleged fraudulent scheme in running the litigation.
An appeals court has set aside an order requiring Alex Elliott, the son of the funder behind the Banksia securities class action, to give a “full and frank” explanation of his role in an alleged fraudulent scheme to inflate legal fees in the case.
Insurers of sandalwood producer Quintis have told a court that a rectification suit brought by the applicants in two class actions seeking to increase D&O coverage by $40 million, “makes no sense”.
Alex Elliott, the son of former Banksia Securities class action lawyer Mark Elliott, must hand over documents revealing his financial interests in his father’s litigation funding company and law firm, after the judge overseeing professional misconduct claims against lawyers in the class action rejected his claims that the discovery was a fishing expedition.
The judge overseeing professional misconduct claims against lawyers in the Banksia class action has denied Alex Elliott’s request to stay the case against him while he takes his recusal application to the Court of Appeal, branding the stay ‘an indulgence’.
The judge overseeing professional misconduct claims against lawyers in the Banksia class action has denied a recusal application brought by Alex Elliott, the son of deceased class action lawyer Mark Elliott, who was joined to the proceedings in August.