Sandalwood producer Quintis has agreed to settle two class actions by shareholders, but the claims against company founder Frank Wilson and auditor EY will proceed for now.
A former general counsel who claims she was sacked from AMP after raising concerns about the company’s fees for no services conduct has mostly succeeded in her bid for further particulars of allegations made in the company’s defence, including a claim that she called “tantamount to extortion”.
A judge has signed off on a $37.5 million Murray Goulburn class action settlement but slashed $2 million in legal costs sought by Mark Elliott’s law firm, which is running the case.
The Chief Justice of the Federal Court says a system is needed to ensure parties don’t interrupt one another during virtual hearings, and noted the increase in online hearings brought on by the coronavirus may also free judges up to hear cases outside their registries.
Group members in two settled class actions against clothing retailer Surfstitch have been told the settlement amount available to them has plummeted amid a “very difficult retail environment”.
As states across Australia shut down non-essential services and close borders in the battle to control the spread of the coronavirus, companies are turning to their lawyers for guidance on everything from contracts to disclosure obligations, staff reductions to workplace health and safety issues. Lawyerly talked to practitioners to find out what was on the minds of their corporate clients.
National Australia Bank and HSBC, which are suing the liquidators of collapsed retailer Dick Smith to recoup over $125 million in loans, have successfully fought off a bid by two former company directors for a series of financial reports.
Measures to relax insolvency and bankruptcy laws to stem a possible wave of COVID-19 company collapses will not achieve their goal — and if Australia enters a European-style lockdown it won’t be a wave of insolvencies, it will be a tsunami, Lawyerly has been told.
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.
The corporate cop has brought legal proceedings against the Commonwealth Bank’s wealth management unit claiming it made misleading or deceptive statements to over 12,000 fund members during the transition to MySuper accounts.