A bid by the liquidators of collapsed engineering company Hastie Group for Lendlease to pay back funds it withdrew under bank guarantees is “untenable” and “misconceived”, a court has heard in a $68 million case that also targets Multiplex, Grocon and John Holland.
Philanthropist and Wotif founder Graeme Wood will have to pay more than $15 million after the Victoria Supreme Court found one of his companies had breached an agreement to act as guarantor for the $73 million sale of a Queensland aquaculture business.
Noumi, formerly known as Freedom Foods, has agreed to pay $860,000 in Blue Diamond Growers’ costs as part of a $48 million settlement of a legal spat over a licensing deal to sell Almond Breeze milk, which the food maker unsuccessfully argued should be heard in Australia.
A judge has hit IOOF unit RI Advice with a $6 million penalty for failing to rein in an adviser who reaped hefty commissions for steering clients towards risky investments, despite earlier expressing concerns the penalty may not have enough sting.
Consumer goods giant Reckitt-Benckiser is seeking special leave from the High Court to challenge a Full Court judgment that overturned a finding that AFT Pharmaceuticals ads’ for its painkiller Maxigesic were misleading.
A judge has raised concerns about a $6 million penalty proposed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission against IOOF unit RI Advice for failing to rein in an adviser who reaped hefty commissions for steering clients towards risky investments.
A judge has criticised the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for treating timetabling orders in its insider trading case against Westpac over a $16 billion interest rate swap as though they were “traffic lights in Naples”.
A judge was “mistaken” to find that AFT Pharmaceuticals’ ads for its painkiller Maxigesic were misleading, with the Full Federal Court ruling there was an adequate scientific foundation for the ads’ claims that the drug provided faster, better pain relief than paracetamol and ibuprofen alone.
La Trobe Financial Asset Management will pay just $750,000 for misleading investors in its 48 hour and 90 day notice accounts over a period of more than three years, with a judge saying the company would have faced a penalty “well in excess” of this amount if not for reassuring correspondence from ASIC during its investigation.
As the courts open up after 18 months of online hearings, junior barristers who were recently called to the bar may be apprehensive at the move to in-person appearances. Here, ten top silks share their wisdom with new barristers on how to be an effective advocate in court.