Facing an ASIC enforcement action over alleged breaches of Australian credit laws, payday lenders BHF Solutions and Cigno claim they did not need a licence to issue loans to hundreds of thousands of consumers.
A showdown over two competing class actions against AMP is set down for December, and the applicants will have to persuade the judge overseeing the cases that they should not be consolidated.
Over-the-counter derivative issuers AGM Markets, OT Markets and Oxifin Tech have been ordered to pay a total of $75 million in penalties after a ruling that they engaged in unconscionable conduct causing losses of over $30 million to unsophisticated investors seeking what a judge called “financial heroin hits”.
Piper Alderman has struck back at a sex discrimination lawsuit brought by a former administrative assistant, admitting that while a law firm partner did tell her to “go spend time with your kids” following a meeting in which she was made redundant, the comment had been taken out of context.
Fifty horse owners may face cross-examination regarding adverse effects allegedly caused by Zoetis’ Hendra virus vaccine, with the company warning a four-week hearing scheduled to begin in March may be insufficient to deal with the horse owners’ evidence.
A judge has fined Ardent Leisure $3.6 million after the operator of the Dreamworld theme park pleaded guilty to three charges stemming from the 2016 deaths of four people on the park’s now demolished Thunder River Rapids ride.
Insurers of sandalwood producer Quintis have told a court that a rectification suit brought by the applicants in two class actions seeking to increase D&O coverage by $40 million, “makes no sense”.
The applicants in a shareholder class action against Dreamworld owner Ardent Leisure over a 2016 tragedy in which four people died following a ride malfunction have lost their request for the company’s insurance documents, with a judge rejecting suggestions that the theme park operator lacks assets to pay the estimated $310 million in claims.
Evidence of an outdated management approach and bullying — which included threatening defamation proceedings against two junior lawyers that complained about her — appear to be responsible for the ousting of a former senior Piper Alderman partner, not her sex, a judge has found.
A high ranking executive from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia has warned that an increase in class actions could discourage Australia’s best corporate leaders from joining company boards.