Shine Lawyers

A shareholder class action against mineral sands producer Iluka Resources has locked in litigation funding, ending months of uncertainty about the fate of the proceedings.

WorleyParsons has abandoned its mid-trial application to shut down a shareholder class action, amid uncertainty about whether the engineering company would be required to surrender its right to call reply evidence if it continued with its submission that it has no case to answer.

Counsel for WorleyParsons has denied the engineering firm’s attempt to end a shareholder class action mid-trial would be the start of a “brave new world” of no-case bids in representative proceedings, saying this was a rare instance of a case with “no chance of success”.

Engineering firm WorleyParsons has told the Federal Court it will press forward with a no case application in an attempt to shut down a shareholder class action against it.

In a year in which it settled a shareholder class action against itself and purchased a class action boutique, publicly-traded law firm Shine Lawyers has posted a profit of $14 million, down more than 26 percent from last year’s $19 million.

WorleyParsons may seek to shut down a shareholder class action against it due to an “insuperable obstacle” caused by last minute pleading amendments, the engineering firm told a court at the outset of a 21-day hearing.

Law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan will push forward with an investor class action against failed engineering company RCR Tomlinson on its own, with two firms driving competing actions agreeing to step down after a judge forcibly consolidated all three proceedings.

The applicants in the Iluka Resources shareholder class action have less than a week to lock-in a $1.25 million security for costs, after the judge overseeing the case asked if he was allowed to dismiss proceedings himself following six months of being “very patient” about ongoing funding dramas.

The plaintiffs in three competing RCR Tomlinson shareholder class actions have been told to “get their act together” by the judge who forcibly consolidated their proceedings, after the parties revealed they were as yet unable to agree on joint funding terms.

The judge overseeing three competing shareholder class actions brought against RCR Tomlinson has refused to entertain a beauty contest, instead deciding to consolidate the proceedings whether the parties “agree or not”.