Quinn Emanuel

A judge has rejected claims that an investor in the Callide power station, which suffered a major failure in 2021, was responsible for delays in the administration of the station’s operator IG Power, saying the administrators’ ten month delay in investigating the incident was to blame.

A report into an explosion at a major Queensland power station that left nearly half a million people without power is not protected by legal professional privilege, with a judge finding public statements about the report show it was not commissioned for the dominant purpose of providing legal advice.

A judge has approved a $40 million settlement in a shareholder class action against collapsed engineering firm RCR Tomlinson, with almost half of the settlement to go towards a funder’s commission and legal fees. 

Santos is seeking to wrangle further documents from the Environmental Defenders Office to support its bid for costs orders against the law firm, telling a court there must have been “glaring deficiencies” in the standard of its services in running its challenge to construction of a pipeline for the energy company’s $5.6 billion Barossa gas project.

A judge will not allow a law firm that stepped in to lead class actions against Hyundai and Kia to amend its funding proposal to seek a group costs order ahead of a carriage fight, even though its proposal would have led to greater returns for group members.

Two units of insurer IAG have been hit with a class action for allegedly misleading hundreds of thousands of home owners insurance customers about loyalty discounts.

Activist organisations are seeking to challenge orders to hand up communications with the Environmental Defenders Office in its failed case against Santos over the $5.6 billion Barossa gas project, arguing there was no legitimate forensic purpose for the material sought. 

A judge has questioned the “independent skill and judgment” applied to the pleading in a third class action filed against International Capital Markets over risky derivative products, amid a “hot contest as to carriage and forum”.

Several activist organisations will have to hand up communications with the Environmental Defenders Office over its unsuccessful challenge to the construction of a pipeline for Santos’ $5.6 billion Barossa gas project, as the energy giant mulls third-party costs orders against them. 

Sydney stockbroker Adam Blumenthal has been ordered to pay close to $1 million after admitting to market rigging and breaching his duties as director of two companies — including by arranging a $7 million loan to ‘ASX Wolf’ Tyson Scholz.