The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has initiated proceedings against Victorian electric utility Sumo Power for allegedly luring customers with the promise of discounts and low rates only to jack up their prices months later.
Global law firm DLA Piper has boosted its restructuring practice with the hire of former Ashurst partner Lionel Meehan for its Melbourne team, the firm’s fourth new hire in recent months.
DLA Piper has hired a partner to build up its finance dispute resolution and class actions practice in Australia.
The competition regulator wants the High Court to hear its challenge to Pacific National’s $205 million acquisition of Aurizon’s Acacia Ridge Terminal in Queensland, saying the deal would entrench the rail freight carrier’s near monopoly on the east coast of Australia.
Shine Lawyers and barrister David Turner have once again dodged a negligence lawsuit over advice given about a $630,000 contractual dispute, with an appeals court upholding an earlier decision dismissing a bid to join the two parties.
Restrictions to combat COVID-19 that forced Australia’s courts to go virtual have had unforseen benefits, and Australia’s top law firms say they don’t want online hearings to be scrapped when social distancing measures are eased.
Domino’s is seeking to strike out portions of the “rolled up, confusing pleading” in a class action over alleged worker underpayments, saying the case cannot be brought under the consumer law.
The High Court will not weigh in on a jurisdictional challenge by the Democratic Republic of East Timor to a lawsuit brought by Australian oil and gas company Lighthouse Corporation over $328 million in alleged losses stemming from a failed fuel supply agreement.
The ACCC has come up short in its appeal of a ruling that dismissed its challenge to Pacific National $205 million acquisition of Aurizon’s Acacia Ridge Terminal in Queensland, with the Full Federal Court also releasing Pacific National from an undertaking given to the court.
Law firm K&L Gates has been hit with a $3 million lawsuit by former clients alleging breaches of duty of care and fiduciary duties after a Victorian Supreme Court loss in a joint venture dispute.