A judge’s decision to pick Maurice Blackburn’s no win, no fee class action against AMP over three funded class actions puts the pressure on litigation funders, which will now face more competition from law firms prepared to go it alone, experts say.Ā The ruling also shows the value courts place on funding arrangements that seek to maximise returns for class members, which means class action beauty parades are sure to get less ugly.
Crown Resorts has appealed a ruling in a shareholder class action against it allowing 18 former employees, who were jailed as part of the Chinese government’s crackdown on gambling, to answer questions about its business in China.
The High Court will not review an appeals court’s decision to approve a $64 million settlement in litigation over the failure of Banksia Securities while rejecting the funder’s commission and legal fees.
Maurice Blackburn’s shareholder class action against AMP — the only action not backed by a litigation funder — has been picked as the winner in a fierce battle of law firms vying to lead a high stakes case over the wealth manager’s fees for no service scandal.
One of two lead applicants in the settled Arasor shareholder class action has been denied leave to be heard over its $1 million personal expenses dispute with litigation funder International Litigation Partners after missing a filing deadline, with a judge calling its handling of the case “shambolic”.
Accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers is resisting a notice to produce audit files in a consolidated shareholder class action over the collapse of education and training company Vocation, arguing its partners face a real risk of criminal and civil penalty proceedings and are entited to claim privilege against self-incrimination.
A ruling by a judge deciding a four-way contest to run a shareholder class action against AMP is expected this week, a judgment significant not just because it is the first time a court in Australia has been asked to choose among so many competing representative cases.
The High Court has granted ASIC special leave to appeal a judgment that let a former director of Gold Coast finance company MFS Group partially off the hook for $147.5 million in misappropriated funds, after ASIC argued the High Court should intervene to clarify the scope of the word “officer” under the Corporations Act.
The applicants in the Iluka Resources investor class action have just 14 days to sort out their funding troubles and provide a $1.25 million security, as a judge warns he will not be able to hold their trial date any longer.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission chair James Shipton has clarified the regulator’s “why not litigate” approach to enforcement, saying it does not mean “litigate first” or “litigate everything”.