Former Slater & Gordon auditor Pitcher Partners has been hit with a class action alleging it signed off on an overly rosy 2015 year-end financial report that failed to disclose risks and impairments the firm faced from its recent acquisition of UK firm Quindell.
A judge has dismissed a bid by PriceWaterhouseCoopers to have one of two law firms bow out of a joint class action against the accounting giant after a lead applicant died.
BHP Billiton is facing the possibility of a second shareholder class action over the Fundao dam failure at its mine in Brazil, but the cases may be put on hold pending the outcome of homicide charges against company employees.
Shine Lawyers has filed a class action against the Department of Defence on behalf of the town of Katherine alleging it has been “devastated” by exposure to toxic chemicals from a nearby DoD base that have been linked to certain cancers and immune dysfunction.
The country’s biggest law firms were among the first in line to weigh in on changes to the class action regime proposed by the Australian Law Reform Commission, with one global firm cautioning against a weakening of continuous disclosure laws.
Forcing courts to choose a single winner in the battle over competing class actions would exacerbate the problems of overlapping cases and encourage the race to court, class action powerhouse Maurice Blackburn said Wednesday.
Law firm Squire Patton Boggs is again on the losing end of a ruling by the judge presiding over a shareholder class action against GetSwift, a case now better known for infighting among lawyers than for the allegations levelled against the tech startup.
Lawyers for two competing class actions against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia over breaches of anti-money laundering laws say the cases can happily co-exist, but whether the court will agree may well depend on the outcome of a closely-watched appeal in a separate battle over multiple proceedings.
The applicants in a class action against Radio Rentals alleging its rental practices violate responsible lending laws say the company is dragging its feet on discovery, after the company accused the applicants’ lawyers of using discovery to delay the case.
A judge on Friday will hear arguments in a bid by BHP Billiton to halt a class action over the mining giant’s Brazilian mine disaster, a sweeping case filed on behalf of investors who held the company’s shares in Australia, the UK or South Africa.