Six law firms are working on a consolidated trial of multiple class actions over the collapse of retailer Dick Smith, but when the trial opened in the NSW Supreme Court this week, a lone barrister appeared in court before Justice Michael Ball, amid a sea of empty bar tables. Most of the hearing’s participants joined through a virtual courtroom while members of the public were invited to watch the trial unfold on a YouTube live stream. Welcome to litigating in the age of the coronavirus.
Litigation funder Augusta Ventures has had its appeal of a groundbreaking ruling that put it on the hook for security for costs in a Fair Work class action pushed back by three months after a delayed case management hearing, with a Federal Court judge telling the parties they were to blame.
A judge has directed solicitors for deceased lawyer and funder Mark Elliott to search for his missing mobile phone, which is wanted for potential evidence by a court-appointed contradictor investigating alleged professional misconduct on the part of the legal team behind a settled class action against failed Banksia Securities.
A judge overseeing a shareholder class action against collapsed engineering group RCR Tomlinson has said goodbye to the common fund order in the case while welcoming last year’s High Court decision preventing these orders from being made at the early stage in class actions.
The High Court has declined two insurers’ request for review of a decision that left them on the hook for covering part of a $6 million class action settlement by Bank of Queensland.
Two shareholder class actions against failed electronics retailer Dick Smith will head to trial in March, after a failed attempt to resolve the long-running dispute in mediation.
A Federal Court judge has given the receivers for Harris Scarfe four more months to find buyers for 39 of the struggling department store chain’s retail outfits, as they look to prevent the company from being wound up.
The lead plaintiffs in two shareholder class actions against Dick Smith can amend their case against accounting firm Deloitte, less than two months before a mammoth hearing is set to commence.
German cladding manufacturer 3A Composites has again threatened to call for the de-classing of a class action brought over allegedly combustible cladding, slamming the case against it as “simply shambolic” and the conduct of the applicant as “utterly irresponsible”.
There is a “reasonable chance” that two shareholder class actions against failed electronics retailer Dick Smith will settle by February of next year, group members have learned.