A court has ordered Theta Asset Management, a collapsed financial services provider that ran a property investment scheme targeting retirees, to pay a $2 million penalty for issuing defective product disclosure statements.
A judge has set aside a subpoena issued by venture capitalist Elaine Stead in her defamation lawsuit against Fairfax, saying subpoenas could not just be issued “willy nilly” to identify a journalist’s confidential sources.
A settlement has been reached in a class action against a Sydney-based financial advisory firm by a group of Chinese investors over a property investment and visa scheme that allegedly saw group members lose $14.5 million in funds.
A Victoria Supreme Court judge hearing two competing class actions against Allianz Australia over “junk” insurance has asked the parties for feedback on what she should consider at a hearing on a request for a group costs order, which would allow the plaintiff lawyers to earn a cut of any settlement or judgment, the first such request made since Victoria legalised contingency fees.
Shareholders who lost a Federal Court trial in their class action against engineering company Worley are challenging the decision to dismiss the case.
A finding this week that Norton Rose Fulbright intentionally misled a former lawyer in an employment dispute and abused the court’s processes threatens the legal career of an equity partner at the firm and is a warning to all firms to think twice before representing themselves in cases involving soured professional relationships.
A former executive of a unit of Leighton Holdings has been arrested and charged with foreign bribery offences following a 9 year-investigation by the AFP into $106 million in bribes allegedly steered to Iraqi officials to win lucrative oil projects.
A court has ruled that an arbitration proceeding before the Fair Work Commission does not doom a Federal Court lawsuit brought by the civilian air traffic controllers union against government-owned Airservices.
An appeals court has shot down oil and gas giant Santos’ bid for expanded discovery against engineering company Fluor, finding that the application was “akin to a fishing expedition” that was based on “a shaky assumption” by lawyers from Corrs Chambers Westgarth.
Two more law firms have been joined to a lawsuit by defunct financial advisor Dover Financial accusing three law firms of providing negligent advice regarding an inaptly titled client protection policy which a judge found was “highly misleading” and “an exercise in Orwellian doublespeak”.