Australian Mercedes-Benz dealers behind a $650 million lawsuit over the car maker’s decision to move to a fixed-price agency model allege the car maker engaged Deloitte as a consultant so it could “spin” its real reasons for making the change.
The solicitor who was found to have acted as a “postbox” to conceal conflicts of interest in the Banksia class action has lost his practicing certificate ahead of a hearing to show cause why he should remain on the roll.
The litigation funder behind a scam to defraud members of a class action over the collapse of Banksia Securities has entered liquidation, and the funder’s two surviving directors will be among potential targets of attempts to recover money to pay a $21.7 million court judgment.
Last year brought economic growth and success for law firms, but 2021 was not only marked with good news. A slew of law firms were dragged into litigation by disgruntled ex-clients, with some paying out millions of dollars to resolve lawsuits accusing them of giving bad advice.
Law firm Maddocks has been ordered to pay more than $1.4 million in indemnity costs for “throwing good money after bad” in failing to consider a settlement offer in a negligence lawsuit over a client’s botched deal with Woolworths.
Mercedes-Benz has responded to a $650 million lawsuit by Australian dealers over its decision to move to a fixed-price agency model, saying it had a “legitimate commercial interest” in making the change and denying that dealer agreements were “perpetual” in their terms.
The litigation funder behind a fraudulent scheme in a class action over Banksia Securities has entered administration with negligible assets to its name.
The judge who made findings against the son of the mastermind behind the Banksia class action scam may have formed strong views about the 27-year-old’s role before he testified and used the flawed suggestion that he was his father’s right-hand man as an “evidential gap filler”, an appeals court has been told.
Two former barristers ordered to pay at least $21.7 million in damages and costs for their role in a fraudulent scheme to pocket a windfall from the Banksia Securities class action have filed for bankruptcy.
The Banksia Securities class action saga will return to the appeals court, with a lawyer indicating he plans to challenge last month’s ruling that found he knowingly assisted in a plot to defraud tens of thousands of investors in the collapsed lender.