The mastermind behind an alleged fraudulent scheme by members of the legal team running the class action over the collapse of Banksia Securities was a “brilliant operator”, his son has told a court.
A judge has found that a litigation funder’s involvement in settlement negotiations without the presence of the applicant’s lawyers in a shareholder class action against Spotless Group, which recently settled for $95 million, was “inappropriate”.
The son of the lawyer and funder at the centre of an alleged fee scandal in the Banksia Securities class action was not his father’s righthand man because the late Mark Elliott did not need a righthand man, his co-accused, former senior barrister Norman O’Bryan, has told a court.
A judge has confined the scope of questions lawyers can ask disgraced senior barrister Norman O’Bryan when he takes the stand this week to give evidence for the son of the mastermind behind an alleged fee scam in the Banksia Securities class action.
The states of Victoria and Queensland have joined two class actions over allegedly combustible cladding as group members, with the claims in the proceedings now exceeding $500 million.
Last-minute discovery of emails by the solicitor facing accusations of complicity in a fraudulent scheme by his father and the barristers leading a class action over the collapse of Banksia Securities has been labelled a “professional disgrace” that has twice delayed his trial.
The judge overseeing a trial over alleged misconduct by lawyers behind the Banksia class action has blasted a bid by disgraced senior counsel Norman O’Bryan to file a notice of proportionate liability ahead of his turn in the witness stand, saying the notice flew in the face of the barrister’s decision to concede defeat in the case.
Senior barrister Norman O’Bryan, who has conceded that he should be struck from the roll for his conduct in an alleged class action fee scandal, has been subpoenaed to give evidence for lawyer Alex Elliott, the son of O’Bryan’s co-conspirator.
A court has ordered Theta Asset Management, a collapsed financial services provider that ran a property investment scheme targeting retirees, to pay a $2 million penalty for issuing defective product disclosure statements.
Two more law firms have been joined to a lawsuit by defunct financial advisor Dover Financial accusing three law firms of providing negligent advice regarding an inaptly titled client protection policy which a judge found was “highly misleading” and “an exercise in Orwellian doublespeak”.