Australia’s corporate watchdog has lost its bid to obtain Ashurst’s advice to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group about potentially illegal bank fees “for now”, but a judge has signalled that this may not be the end of the matter.
Westpac has been hit with a class action over a “shonky” car loan scheme, in what is the first class to be filed in Victoria Supreme Court following passage of a state law allowing lawyers to earn contingency fees.
Westpac has denied claims in a shareholder class action filed in the wake of AUSTRAC proceedings alleging 23 million breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism finance laws, saying the information the class action says it should have disclosed to shareholders “did not exist”.
The judge hearing a class action trial against Ford over its allegedly defective Powershift transmission has rejected the car maker’s argument that certain documents should be suppressed because they hold trade secrets, saying Ford did not invent the 6 Sigma problem solving method on which some of the reports were based.
Westpac is facing a class action over an allegedly dishonest car loan scheme that was eventually banned by the corporate regulator.
The commission rates of litigation funders have come under attack on the first day of a parliamentary inquiry into class actions, with the CEO of funder Omni Bridgeway in the firing line over a $10.5 million cut of a recent $42 million settlement in a class action against milk supplier Murray Goulburn.
A judge has trimmed the costs the Commissioner of Patents owes Aristocrat Technologies after the gaming giant successfully appealed a ruling rejecting four of its gaming patents, saying Aristocrat had “over-egged the pudding” by submitting evidence from three experts on the patentability of its inventions.
A judge has ordered two class actions brought against 7-Eleven on behalf of franchisees to pay $3 million in security for costs as trial in the cases gets pushed to August next year.
A judge has pushed off a heated contest between law firms vying to lead a shareholder class action against construction giant Boral for what could be a year as a landmark High Court challenge plays out.
A judge on Friday dismissed Westpac’s bid for an update from litigation funder JustKapital as to whether it continues to financially back a class action against the bank over allegedly excessive insurance premiums.