Lawyers behind a scheme to defraud members of a class action over the collapse of Banksia Securities have offered $10.6 million to resolve a case that has put them on the hook for at least double that sum.
Law firm Maddocks has bolstered its corporate practice with the addition of two senior mergers and acquisitions specialists, nabbed from Lander & Rogers and Herbert Smith Freehills.
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.