Elizabeth Collins

A judge has approved a $40 million settlement in a shareholder class action against collapsed engineering firm RCR Tomlinson, with almost half of the settlement to go towards a funder’s commission and legal fees. 

A judge has raised concerns about bids to declass group proceedings over alleged business interruption losses during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the thousands of policyholders who registered for the class actions might reap more from the cases than making claims directly with their insurers.

Lendlease has hit back at a lawsuit by a former Greenwoods & Freehills partner who alleged he was sacked for complaining about the company’s “aggressive taxation position”, claiming the partner reached out after he left the firm welcoming the chance to work with the company again.

The lead applicant in a class action against former Commonwealth Bank of Australia subsidiary Count Financial has settled individual claims in the case, which alleges the financial advisory firm charged fees for no service.

Noumi and ASIC are challenging a finding that the food manufacturer waived legal professional privilege over a PricewaterhouseCoopers report commissioned by its lawyers at Ashurst by disclosing the report during an ASIC investigation.

A judge that tossed two shareholder class actions against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia has found the bank did not have to alert investors to the possibility of AUSTRAC proceedings, saying investors did not expect to be apprised of the “toings and froings” of regulatory investigations.

The High Court has been asked to overturn a NSW Court of Appeal decision finding it had no power to exclude unregistered group members from a settlement, which conflicted with Federal Court precedent, hearing the divergence of the important issue “can only be resolved by the High Court”.

Two class actions have failed to convince a judge that the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s money laundering compliance failure which led to a $700 million penalty was “law breaking on a grand scale” that should have been disclosed to the market, the latest shareholder case to flop after being taken to trial.

The NSW Court of Appeal has said it has no power to exclude group members who do not sign up to a class action from participating in a settlement, upholding a controversial decision that the Full Federal Court said was “plainly wrong”. 

A former director of Noumi has won his challenge to the food manufacturer’s claim for legal professional privilege over a PricewaterhouseCoopers report commissioned by its lawyers at Ashurst, with a judge finding the company waived privilege by disclosing it to Australian Securities and Investments Commission.