Westpac has reached settlements in two separate US class actions over the bank’s trading activity in the bank bill swap rate market and disclosures in relation to its compliance with Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws.
A judge has expressed skepticism at claims by accounting firm Pitcher Partners that the lead applicant of a now dropped class action over its auditing advice to Slater & Gordon should be hit with indemnity costs for discontinuing the case.
A judge has raised doubts about claims of loss and damage in a class action by members of superannuation funds operated by NAB units MLC and NULIS over alleged MySuper mismanagement, as he determines a challenge to whether the case was validly brought as a class action.
Facing an uphill battle to win approval for a $1.9 million settlement in a sham contracting class action against fundraiser Appco Group, a lawyer for the case has told a court there is no money left to pursue.
Johnson Winter & Slattery persisted with a shareholder class action over auditing advice given to Slater & Gordon despite concerns about the strength of the claims raised in late 2017, Pitcher Partners has told the Federal Court as it seeks indemnity costs for the now abandoned proceeding.
Drakes Supermarkets is facing a class action alleging it failed to pay staff at its Foodland and Drakes stores for time worked in excess of rostered hours, the latest on a growing list of supermarket chains to be stung by an underpayments class action.
A personal injury law firm is seeking to shut down a class action alleging it charged clients unreasonable fees, telling the court that there were “serious concerns” about the irregularity of the proceedings and the conduct of the lawyer running it.
The High Court majority’s reasoning in the decision nixing common fund orders at an early stage of a class action leads “inexorably and inevitably” to the conclusion that there is no power to make such an order at any time in a proceeding, counsel for 7-Eleven has told an appeals court.
Luxury car maker BMW has told the NSW Court of Appeal that the courts do not have power to make common fund orders at any stage of a group proceeding, arguing that such orders would distort the scope of the class action regime by encouraging litigation funders to pursue lawsuits.
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.