ASIC will soon have more ammunition to go after corporate wrongdoers, after the Senate passed legislation that arms the regulator to seek harsher civil and criminal sanctions against banks, their executives and others that breach the corporate and financial services law.
The law firm running a class action against sandalwood producer Quintis has pitched an unusual common fund order that subjects the firm and the funder bankrolling the case to ongoing monitoring by a cost referee.
Technology solutions firm Byte Power Group has paid a $33,000 penalty for violating its continuous disclosure obligations by telling shareholders a proposed cryptocurrency exchange was “well advanced” when development yet to begin.
A judge won’t defer the opt-out notice in a shareholder class action against GetSwift pending the High Court’s decision on a special leave application to revive a competing class action, saying the sooner the case settles the better.
Law firms Maurice Blackburn and Phi Finney McDonald have stepped back from a proposed consolidation of their class actions against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and want to run their own cases again, but now with “harmonised” pleadings.
A judge has recommended another shareholder vote over Boart Longyear’s plan to move to Canada, saying a letter by a minority shareholder warning the move could imperil a possible class action against the distressed mining services company was misleading and affected the integrity of the vote.
Deloitte is challenging a judge’s ruling that certain partners not be excused from an order to produce files of the accounting giant’s audit work for Hastie Group to shareholders in a class action over the construction company’s collapse, its latest move after a failed attempt to persuade the judge that a rogue partner had taken the only copies of the files and refused to give them back.
Class action experts have come to the defence of boutique law firm Phi Finney McDonald as heavyweight Maurice Blackburn appeals a judge’s ruling to choose the “less experienced” firm to lead a shareholder class action against BHP Billiton.
Maurice Blackburn has criticised a judge’s decision to award carriage of a massive shareholder class action against BHP over the fatal collapse of a dam at its Brazilian mine to “less experienced” firm Phi Finney McDonald, lodging what is now the second high-stakes challenge to a ruling permanently staying a competing class action.
Lawyerly spoke to ten class action experts on the release of the Australian Law Reform Commission’s highly anticipated report into the class action regime. While many of the ALRC’s proposals were expected — and welcomed as sensible — others were greeted with concern and skepticism. Here, we look at the most controversial of the 24 recommendations.