Accounting firm Pitcher Partners gave faulty advice ahead of Slater & Gordon’s disastrous $1.2 billion Quindell acquisition that was responsible for $800 million in the business’ value “disappearing” within six months, a court heard on the first day of trial in a long-running class action by the law firm’s shareholders.
The Sparke Helmore partner at the centre of a $1 million professional negligence lawsuit attempted to conceal an “oversight of enormous proportions” that is said to have lost a property developer two lucrative contracts, a court has heard.
Maurice Blackburn is being sued by a factory worker who claims the law firm’s negligence in failing to file a lawsuit on time cost him the opportunity to recoup significant damages from his former employer for physical and psychological injuries sustained while on the job.
The Banksia Securities class action saga will return to the appeals court, with a lawyer indicating he plans to challenge last month’s ruling that found he knowingly assisted in a plot to defraud tens of thousands of investors in the collapsed lender.
In rejecting a bid by The Star Entertainment Group to recoup losses stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Court’s Chief Justice did “real and unexplained violence” to the construction of a business interruption policy the casino giant had taken out with Chubb, the Full Court has heard.
The former director of a central Queensland construction company relied on his Sparke Helmore solicitor to read over contracts for sale for him, a court has heard in a trial over allegations the law firm’s negligence led to a loss of more than $1 million.
The Northern Territory’s agreement to pay $35 million to settle a class action on behalf of 1,200 young people who allegedly suffered human rights abuses while in detention was a “discount” on the claimed value of compensation owed, a court has heard.
Media giant Nine has defended reporting that allegedly implied former Victorian Liberal party vice president Marcus Bastiaan engaged in illegal branch stacking, arguing the coverage was justified and that federal assistant treasurer Michael Sukkar was in on the scheme.
The ACCC’s practice of successively refining witness statements without saving draft versions was “quite unfair”, says a judge overseeing the competition regulator’s criminal cartel case over a botched ANZ share placement.
Former Tennis Australia president Steven Healy has lost his bid for $4.3 million in indemnity costs against ASIC over its failed case over the rights to the Australian Open, with a judge finding the regulator’s case against him had “reasonable prospects of success” before trial.