Accounting giant Ernst & Young, which has been dragged into two class actions by Slater & Gordon shareholders, has shot back at claims it was negligent in its 2015 audit report of the law firm’s UK division, which included a review of the firm’s disastrous acquisition of Quindell’s professional services arm that found no impairment on the goodwill value of the deal.
The funders behind two shareholder class actions against online fashion retailer Surfstitch Group will seek a commission of up to 30 per cent while the law firms that brought the cases will ask for approval of up to $6 million in legal fees during an upcoming settlement approval hearing, which also puts the fate of a deed of company arrangement that saved the company from liquidation on the line.
Accounting giant Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu will not face cross claims over the collapse of failed retailer Dick Smith when a hearing of three shareholder class actions kicks off in three months.
Shareholders have appealed a ruling that found a “serious problem” with market-based causation and dismissed three cases against the liquidator of failed global financial services firm Babcock & Brown.
A Sydney-based development firm has won limited access to legal documents from Norton Rose Fulbright in a property dispute over redevelopment of the Sydney Fish Markets and a $2.3 million “secret commission”.
Sydney-based liquidator David Iannuzzi has been disqualified from serving as an insolvency practitioner for 10 years, in the first case brought by the Australian Tax Office under the Corporations Act’s ban on tax avoidance schemes.
The former AMP general counsel who alleges she was bullied and sacked for complaining about the wealth manager’s fees for no service was not a whistleblower, but just one of many employees who raised concerns about the practice, the firm has said in a defence to the fired lawyer’s $2.7 million lawsuit.
A judge has ordered the legal teams behind two settled Surfstitch class actions to have another crack at the opt out notice, saying the current version is “just too confusing” for group members.
A judge has dismissed three proceedings by shareholders against the liquidator of failed global financial services firm Babcock & Brown, in a finding that highlights “serious problems” with market-based causation and may have ramifications for securities class actions.
A judge has signed off on a settlement of a long-running class action against Westpac unit BankSA, and has ruled the law firm that brought the case has an equitable right to unpaid legal costs for investigating the case before it found a funder.