AMP has been hit with a cliass action by a group of financial planners over changes to its buyer of last resort policy last year, which cut the number of authoried advisers and retreated from a promise to buy back their businesses at a price based on a set multiple.
The Murray Goulburn class action has been cited repeatedly in the current parliamentary inquiry into class actions and litigation funding. For some, the return generated by Omni Bridgeway, which funded the action, is Exhibit A in the case that litigation funders make too much money. To others – including the one person in the best position to judge – it is nothing of the sort, says Clive Bowman of Omni Bridgeway.
The funder and legal team behind a class action over the collapse of Banksia Securities billed for phantom costs in a “fraudulent scheme” to secure almost $20 million from the case, the contradictor investigating the purported misconduct has told a court.
Supermarket chain Romeo’s has become the latest retailer to face a class action alleging it failed to pay staff for all hours worked.
Westpac anti-money laundering compliance troubles continue to worsen, with the bank reporting an additional 365,000 incomplete or inaccurate threshold transaction reports to AUSTRAC.
There is an “embarrassing” foreign influence on Australian laws, a plaintiff law firm has told a parliamentary inquiry into class actions, after revealing that Treasurer Josh Frydenberg met with an affiliate of the US Chamber of Commerce in May, shortly before announcing a crackdown on litigation funders.
The law firm that represented elderly victims of Ponzi schemer Bradley Sherwin has told the government’s class action inquiry of its “painful” relationship with the funder involved in the proceedings, which eventually saw the firm bow out of the case because of a conflict of interest.
The litigation funder behind the class action over Banksia Securities’ collapse has admitted it misled a costs consultant retained to report to the court on the reasonableness of the fees in the case, but says its commission should not take a hit as a result because the misconduct occurred after the litigation settled against Banksia’s trustee for $64 million.
An Australian litigation funder has warned a parliamentary inquiry into class actions that there is unlikely to be any funded class actions filed for up to 12 months, with new laws, set to take effect from August 22, creating a “regulatory vacuum”.
AMP Life has been hit with a class action alleging its financial representatives pushed inflated insurance policies onto 100,000 customers while knowing that better policies could be found through other providers.