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Shine Lawyers is investigating two new class actions against Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac's BT Funds Management over allegedly excessive insurance premiums, a week after filing a similar case against AMP's life insurance arm.
The judge overseeing a trial over legal fees and funding commission in the Banksia Securities class action has questioned whether the lawyers behind the case should remain on the roll of practitioners if allegations of misconduct aired in the hearing so far -- which include billing for phantom costs -- are made out.
Liquidators for collapsed steel and mining giant Arrium have successfully appealed a court ruling permitting the examination of a former director for a possible shareholder class action, with the Court of Appeal for the NSW Supreme Court finding the "private nature" of the claims was an abuse of process.
A judge has narrowed discovery in a class action against the Commonwealth of Australia over allegedly unlawful Robodebt payments, criticising the lead applicants for persisting with an approach to discovery that "was not a particularly helpful one".
The law firm behind a long-running class action against Pitcher Partners over its auditing of Slater and Gordon is seeking court approval to drop the case, leaving the funder that bankrolled the proceeding to defend an application for indemnity costs.
Revelations of fraud this week in the Banksia class action have put the ability of judges to scrutinise litigation funding agreements in the spotlight of a parliamentary class action inquiry, with one MP claiming the judiciary was "stretched beyond capacity".
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission told the government's class action inquiry that it was committed to making the existing class action regime work with upcoming regulations that will spell the end of its "light touch" approach to litigation funders.
Lawyer Mark Elliott was the "puppet master" behind the Banksia class action, retaning an old school mate to represent the lead applicant but in reality funding and running the proceedings with barristers Norman O'Bryan SC and Michael Symons to line their pockets at the expense of group members, a court has been told.
The operator of Dreamworld in Queensland has pleaded guilty to three charges over the 2016 deaths of four people on the theme park's now demolished Thunder River Rapids ride.
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.