The son of Banksia class action funder Mark Elliott was no Michael Corleone of the Godfather, and was not knowingly complicit in an alleged scheme masterminded by his father to defraud group members and destroy evidence, his lawyer has told a court.
Barrister Norman O’Bryan SC has failed in his last-ditch bid to reopen his defence in the Banksia class action to submit evidence he says shows he did not retain an interest in the litigation funder behind the case.
The judge overseeing the trial alleging fraud on the part of barristers and the funder behind a class action over Banksia Securities will be asked to award at least $32 million to the failed property lender’s 16,000 debenture holders for the serious misconduct alleged against the lawyers.
An opt out notice proposed to be given to group members in an underpayment class action against a unit of labour hire firm Tandem has been criticised by a judge as skewed to details of their exposure to cross-claims by the company.
A judge has allowed a unit of recruitment firm Tandem to file cross-claims against individual group members in an underpayment class action, in a rare move that may spark important changes in representative proceedings.
A Victorian barrister has reached a settlement on the eve of trial in a breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit brought by a former client who lost a court case over a $24.5 million real estate dispute.
A Melbourne law firm and barrister will soon face trial over allegations of breach of fiduciary duty brought by a former client who lost a lawsuit over a $24.5 million property joint venture.
The founder of a charity that provides sleeping bags to homeless people has lost her unfair dismissal case after she went “to war” with the non-profit in the Fair Work Commission following a string of fraud charges levelled against her.
The son of the funder behind a class action at the centre of scandalous misconduct claims says he would have sought advice from a family friend if he had realised his father and counsel leading the case were misleading the court to inflate their profits from a $64 million settlement.
Solicitor Alex Elliott has said it never clicked with him that members of the legal team running the Banksia class action were misleading an appeals court when his father — the mastermind behind the alleged deception — told him to sign cheques for lawyers that they could not cash.