Accounting giant Ernst & Young, which has been dragged into two class actions by Slater & Gordon shareholders, has shot back at claims it was negligent in its 2015 audit report of the law firm’s UK division, which included a review of the firm’s disastrous acquisition of Quindell’s professional services arm that found no impairment on the goodwill value of the deal.
Plaintiffs lawyers running class actions in Victoria will be free to charge contingency fees under new legislation introduced by the Labor government this week, a move that will see a boost in class actions brought in the state and has prompted calls for the Federal Government to follow suit.
The litigation funder financing the second of two recently settled shareholder class actions against Murray Goulburn will face similar scrutiny over its commission as the funder behind the first action.
Infant food maker Bellamy’s has agreed to pay $49.7 million to settle two shareholder class actions alleging the company misled investors in 2016 about its China growth strategy and declining infant formula market share in Australia.
Two Westpac units have defended their choice to charge higher superannuation fees, saying in their responses to a Slater and Gordon class action that customers received numerous positive benefits in exchange for the charges.
The National Australia Bank and insurer MLC have agreed to pay $49.5 million to settle a class action over allegedly worthless credit card insurance.
Whether judges can alter the terms of litigation funding agreements in class actions is a question that will remain unsettled for now, after litigation funder IMF Bentham chose to sidestep a lengthy, costly and risky challenge to the reach of the court’s powers.
The National Australia Bank faces the prospect of “significant monetary penalties” after self-reporting a potentially large number of money laundering and counter terrorism financing breaches to AUSTRAC and its overseas counterparts.
Certain claims in a shareholder class action against insolvent training company Vocation and auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers have been dropped, as the long-running case awaits a new trial date pending the outcome of a separate Full Court appeal.
It has been suggested by American and Canadian lawyers that Australia is dragging its feet in using its group litigation and class action regimes to bring justice to those affected by discrimination. Where multiple people are affected by discrimination, practitioners should consider the utility of group complaints under statute as well as the class actions regime as a vehicle to collectivise claims and bring strength in numbers, say Slater and Gordon’s Gemma Leigh-Dodds and Hannah Lewis.