Accounting giant Ernst & Young, which has been dragged into two class actions by Slater & Gordon shareholders, has shot back at claims it was negligent in its 2015 audit report of the law firm’s UK division, which included a review of the firm’s disastrous acquisition of Quindell’s professional services arm that found no impairment on the goodwill value of the deal.
Plaintiffs lawyers running class actions in Victoria will be free to charge contingency fees under new legislation introduced by the Labor government this week, a move that will see a boost in class actions brought in the state and has prompted calls for the Federal Government to follow suit.
The litigation funder financing the second of two recently settled shareholder class actions against Murray Goulburn will face similar scrutiny over its commission as the funder behind the first action.
Troubled retail technology firm Irexchange is accused of misleading shareholders through three different capital raising offers, according to a new Federal Court case brought by investors who sunk over $4.5 million into the company.
An investigation into donations made to activist group GetUp! by the Australian Workers’ Union more than a decade ago has been closed down by a judge, who has also ordered the return of documents seized in high-profile raids of the union’s offices.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has been awarded $120,000 in damages after suing former senator David Leyonhjelm, with a judge finding there was no justification for defamatory commments he made to the media and that he acted with malice.
Maurice Blackburn disregarded emails by the artist behind the iconic Fearless Girl statue questioning whether she would be breaching her contract with US asset management firm State Street in selling the law firm a replica, a court has heard.
A hearing for approval of a $190 million settlement in a historic class action over unpaid wages to thousands of Indigenous workers has been adjourned to next month after a judge appointed a referee to scrutinise the fees charged by the law firm behind the case.
A prominent Queensland family has won almost $3.7 million in damages after a court found the Nine Network was “recklessly indifferent” to the truth of a 60 Minutes’ report alleging the collapse of a wall at the family’s quarry was to blame for floods that killed 12 people.
A judge has consolidated competing shareholder class actions against builder Lendlease brought by rival plaintiffs law firms, but has rejected the firms’ bid to jointly run the litigation and says one of them must go.