Law Firms

Puma has failed in its bid for leave to appeal a decision that found its ‘Procat’ trade mark was deceptively similar to US machinery manufacturer Caterpillar’s CAT marks.

Following a three-week trial, Pitcher Partners has agreed to pay $41 million to settle a shareholder class action alleging the firm, along with Ernst & Young, approved an overly rosy year-end financial report related to Slater & Gordon’s disastrous $1.2 billion acquisition of UK business Quindell.

The director of a money transfer business accused of fixing foreign exchange rates has been let off the hook after four other people associated with the business entered guilty pleas to six charges of criminal cartel conduct. 

Retail Food Group wants to shut down a class action brought on behalf of current and former franchisees of its Michel’s Patisserie chain who claim to have suffered losses stemming from changes to the franchise giant’s supply chain in 2015 and 2016.

Two alleged victims of a former Sydney doctor who pretended to be a plastic surgeon and performed breast augmentation surgeries that left them injured cannot make claims against Avant Insurance, an appeals court has ruled. 

A judge has ordered Australian telecommunications companies Jabiru Satellite and NewSat to pay $1 million in security for costs in a lawsuit against eight major banks alleging they wrongfully withdrew financial support for Australia’s first independently owned satellite.

ClubsNSW has lost a bid to keep its contempt of court case against whistleblower Troy Stolz and YouTuber Jordan Shanks secret, with a judge finding “the interests of open justice are paramount”.

Coal mining firm TerraCom has lost its Full Court bid to shield a PricewaterhouseCoopers report from ASIC, on appeal from a judgment which found the regulator could view the report because of public statements made by the company.

Two insurers for Dixon Advisory have argued they should not have to disclose policies that could respond to mammoth claims in a class action against the collapsed financial services firm estimated to be worth $278 million and $463 million. 

A fight has broken out between the litigation funder and the lawyers representing 15,000 seaweed farmers in a class action against oil exploration company PTTEP Australia over a spill at its Montara oil field in the Timor Sea.