Two insurance brokers have dodged being dragged into class action proceedings against sandalwood producer Quintis to boost a settlement reached last year, as a fight over insurance owed to the company to cover the settlement continues.
Lawyerly’s Litigation Firms of 2020 delivered significant victories for clients last year in bet-the-company matters, thriving in a tumultuous year that saw courts and litigants adapt to virtual trials and other new norms that are sure to outlast the COVID-19 pandemic.
While a Federal Court judge recently promised to advance a long-running criminal cartel case against several investment banks and individuals over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement, a separate judge will soon hear a privilege dispute over documents from whistleblower JPMorgan that promises to further delay the case.
The Federal Court judge who is now overseeing a high stakes criminal cartel case against several investment banks and individuals over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement has ordered that an indictment be filed by February 1, telling the parties “we have to get this case moving” and that he hoped to move the matter to trial “before we all retire”.
A judge has lashed out at the legal team behind a class action against S&P over allegedly misleading credit ratings for filing hearsay evidence in support of an application to serve the ratings giant overseas, saying that “nobody who is a first year law student” would say the evidence was admissible.
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.
The group providing funding to claimants in a class action against the federal government over its 2011 ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia does not have to comply with new rules requiring litigation funders to obtain an AFSL and operate as a managed investment scheme in order to sign up new group members.
The litigation funder embroiled in a contractual dispute with a lead applicant in a class action against S&P Global is a stranger to the proceeding and has no right to demand to be served an application to pause the case pending the outcome of the contract spat, a judge has said.
One of the lead applicants in a class action against ratings giant S&P Global, which is involved in a dispute with the funder that’s backing the case, wants to look at the funding agreement signed by the class action’s other lead applicant.
Forty-four barristers have ascended to the senior counsel ranks in NSW and Victoria, including the barrister that represented Geoffrey Rush in his high-profile defamation victory and a member of the legal team that successfully defended Westpac against ASIC’s infamous ‘Wagyu beef and shiraz’ case.