At least five law firms are investigating lawsuits, including class action proceedings, in the wake of a landmark test case on COVID-19 exclusions for business interruption cover.
While there was no shortage of pain and challenges for law firms as the coronavirus raged across the globe last year, a number of big firms also felt the sting of litigation from disgruntled clients, partners and employees.
Payouts in class actions in 2020 largely kept pace with the previous year despite the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, with companies and other defendants paying more than $696 million to settle class actions last year.
A fight over whether a class action applicant must fork over security for costs is not a matter of the strength of the case, says a judge presiding over a class action brought by superannuation holders against Commonwealth Bank of Australia and subsidiaries Colonial First State and Avanteos.
Law firm Slater & Gordon has brought a class action against ANZ alleging former subsidiary OnePath Custodians breached its duties as a trustee of superannuation funds by slugging members with excessive fees to pay commissions to financial advisers.
Two law firms have launched a class action against NSW Health on behalf of over 10,000 junior doctors for its alleged failure to pay overtime hours.
Shareholders of collapsed vocational training company Vocation are poised to get about half of a $50 million settlement reached last month in a complex, long-running class action alleging the company failed to make adequate disclosures about its contracts with the Victorian Department of Education.
Arnold Bloch Leibler has hit back at a class action by Slater & Gordon shareholders accusing it of misleading and deceptive conduct and breaching its duty of care by greenlighting the law firm’s $1.2 billion acquisition of Quindell, filing cross-claims against Slater & Gordon and two of its former directors.
A class action has been filed against the trustee and responsible entity of the Mayfair Group’s IPO Wealth Fund, which was wound up in September after $86 million of investor funds were lost.
Slater and Gordon has won a bid to strike out parts of a cross-claim seeking injury compensation for alleged bullying at the law firm brought by a solicitor accused of stealing clients after jumping ship.