Professional Negligence

The wife of the late mining executive Ken Talbot wanted to “destroy” the law firm that advised her husband about his will, a court has found in awarding costs against the widow.

King & Wood Mallesons has denied the claims in a lawsuit by defunct stockbroker Halifax Investment Services alleging it failed to advise it of an obligation to hold client funds on trust, and has said another law firm should also take the blame if it is found negligent.

An appeals court has thrown out a $285,000 negligence judgment against Sparke Helmore over two sales contracts worth $1.5 million and rejected a NSW developer’s attempts to squeeze the law firm for a heftier damages bill.

Accounting firm Pitcher Partners has lost an application to dismiss a $127 million lawsuit by the family of race car driver Max Twigg as an abuse of process, with a judge rejecting its claim that the proceedings were deliberately delayed.

HWL Ebsworth has been found negligent in advising on a joint venture contract for an ambitious Sydney-based land development, which allegedly lost the law firm’s former client $130 million. 

Pitcher Partners has failed to stay a Federal Court suit alleging the accounting firm failed to properly advise former Zap Fitness owner Bective Enterprises on a troubled share buy-back scheme, in light of a Supreme Court bid by another key player to shut the case down.

The widow of mining executive Ken Talbot has lost a case alleging law firms Arnold Bloch Leibler and Boyd Legal mishandled her late husband’s estate after a judge found she had a “stated intention to destroy” the estate lawyer.

A class action against a Victorian aged care home over alleged major failures during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has asked the facility to hand over insurance information and evidence of its financial position. 

A judge has found Downer Energy was responsible for a costly shutdown at a NSW power plant caused by a “practically unthinkable” defect.

Monash IVF has hit back at a class action brought on behalf of hundreds of men and women demanding damages for the alleged destruction of potentially viable embryos, saying patients “were made aware of the risks” of a novel testing technique.