Two more law firms have been joined to a lawsuit by defunct financial advisor Dover Financial accusing three law firms of providing negligent advice regarding an inaptly titled client protection policy which a judge found was “highly misleading” and “an exercise in Orwellian doublespeak”.
The Australian Taxation Office has been blocked from indirectly recouping GST lost in a major tax scam by allegedly crooked gold traders with the Full Federal Court finding a $208 million demand sent to a defunct gold refiner had incorrectly interpreted the GST Act.
A judge has declined to throw out a lawsuit brought against Qantas by a self-represented worker who was stood down, saying a “liberal and lenient” approach was needed.
Mining services company Thiess has lost its challenge to a class action ruling which found the company had underpaid workers for time spent on the bus travelling home from a Pilbara-based liquefied natural gas processing plant owned by Woodside Energy.
Insurer Liberty Mutual is challenging its loss in a coverage dispute with construction company Icon Co over $31 million in losses stemming from Sydney’s Opal Tower, whose residents were evacuated after cracks appeared in the tower’s walls on Christmas Eve in 2018.
A former Norton Rose Fulbright partner has won a long-running case over his termination, with a judge ruling the law firm had intentionally misled the lawyer and must pay him $160,000 for its deception.
A judge has said she was “currently minded” to sign off on a scheme of arrangement that would see last-mile logistics software firm GetSwift relocate to Canada, but has sought further submissions on whether any Australian civil penalties sought against the company by ASIC would be enforceable in the Canadian courts.
The Fair Work Ombudsman has secured its first penalties under ‘serious contraventions’ provisions of the Fair Work Act, seeing a recidivist former Han’s Café franchisee in Perth and general manager slapped with $230,000 in fines for the”cavalier” and “entirely unacceptable” underpayment of vulnerable, young migrant workers.
The parties in a class action against the Federal Government over the controversial Robodebt scheme have reached an in principle settlement as the first day of a highly anticipated hearing was scheduled to kick off.
Class action filings in the Victoria Supreme Court have more than doubled in 2020, a trend that’s likely to hold as law firms take advantage of a new law allowing them to earn contingency fees for running successful class actions.