A judge has stripped a group proceeding against a Melbourne law firm of class action status, finding each of the firm’s 700 clients had “factually discrete” claims.
The High Court has declined special leave to a former Rigby Cooke client who unsuccessfully challenged the law firm’s win in a dispute over a $24.5 million East Melbourne development.
Last week’s judgment denouncing the scandalous behaviour of the legal team running the Banksia Securities class action cast a spotlight on the conduct of lawyers for some of the defendants, asking whether “untenable” defences were maintained beyond an acceptable point in the case.
Lawyers running the scandal-ridden Banksia class action have been struck from the roll of practitioners, will face criminal investigation and must pay group members $11.7 million in damages.
It has been described as the darkest chapter in Victoria’s legal history, an exemplar of all that is terrible with class actions in Australia. A case of greedy lawyers who found their golden egg in a group of retirees who had lost their life savings, never thinking the chickens might come home to roost. Until now.
A Melbourne law firm has lost its bid for indemnity costs after it failed to convince a judge that its settlement offer to a former client was anything more than a demand to capitulate in a “hard fought” legal battle over a $24.5 million East Melbourne development.
A Melbourne law firm has triumphed in a lawsuit by a former client that accused it of breaching its fiduciary duty in “hard-fought” litigation over a $24.5 million East Melbourne development.
Allowing former senior barrister Norman O’Bryan to reopen his defence in the Banksia class action while “avoiding the witness box” was clearly prejudicial, and futile to boot, a judge has said in his reasons for refusing the silk’s last-minute application.
Once high-flying barrister Norman O’Bryan might seek to challenge a refusal by the judge overseeing the Banksia class action to revisit his abandoned defence and accept into evidence a document he claims proved he did not secretly hold shares in the funder behind the case.
The litigation funding company controlled by the late solicitor Mark Elliott has told a court of its “remorse and regret” for its misconduct in the Banksia Securities class action, a case that has been described as the “darkest chapter in Victoria’s legal history”.