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.
A national law firm has been found liable to pay $13 million in damages for giving negligent advice to a former client that led to a botched sale of its business to Woolworths and caused it to go into administration.
Investors in collapsed stockbroker Halifax Investment Services have failed to overturn decisions in Australia and New Zealand relating to the date of realisation of their investments which have decreased the amount they can recover in the company’s liquidation.
Last weekās judgment denouncing the scandalous behaviour of the legal team running the Banksia Securities class action cast a spotlight on the conduct of lawyers for some of the defendants, asking whether āuntenableā defences were maintained beyond an acceptable point in the case.
Lawyers running the scandal-ridden Banksia class action have been struck from the roll of practitioners, will face criminal investigation and must pay group members $11.7 million in damages.
It has been described as the darkest chapter in Victoria’s legal history, an exemplar of all that is terrible with class actions in Australia. A case of greedy lawyers who found their golden egg in a group of retirees who had lost their life savings, never thinking the chickens might come home to roost. Until now.
Approximately 1,000 investors of collapsed stockbroker Halifax Investment Services have challenged a court decision concerning the date of the realisation of their investments which decreased the amounts they could recoup from the company’s liquidation.
Victoria’s State Revenue Office breached its obligations and denied procedural fairness to a senior solicitor who was fired after an investigation into alleged harassment, the state’s Court of Appeal has found.
The city of Sydney has sued Telstra to block the telecommunications giant from carrying out the allegedly unlawful replacement and installation of payphones throughout the CBD area.