A judge has blessed Ernst & Young’s settlement with shareholders in a class action alleging the firm, along with Pitcher Partners, approved an overly rosy year-end financial report related to Slater & Gordon’s disastrous $1.2 billion acquisition of UK business Quindell.
Oil exploration company PTTEP has argued 15,000 Indonesian seaweed farmers who brought a class action alleging their crops were damaged after an oil spill in the Timor Sea will need to individually persuade the court to allow their claims out of time.
A judge has rejected a bid by chain logistics company Brambles to allow two of its US-based witnesses to appear remotely at an upcoming trial in a shareholder class action, saying the executives should make the trip or give no evidence.
Uber is challenging a ruling that found many email exchanges with its lawyers were made in furtherance of offences and were not protected by legal professional privilege, saying it would be forced to hand over to a class action “bog standard” legal advice.
Victoria has pledged to become the first state in Australia to restrict the use of non-disclosure agreements in workplace sexual harassment cases, which are used to silence victims and protect companies and harassers.
Citigroup has settled a lawsuit alleging it gave a customer conflicted financial advice to invest most of her savings in “risky” products, despite her being an inexperienced investor with limited funds.
A judge has told journalist Tegan George to rework her sex discrimination claims against Network Ten, following an interlocutory stoush over her claims that the network’s Canberra bureau, led by high profile political reporter Peter van Onselen and executive editor Anthony Murdoch “was a workplace that was hostile to women.”
A litigation funder has reaped $7.5 million from the sale of a 20 per cent stake in a shareholder class action against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia over the bank’s allegedly lax money laundering compliance.
The law firm that lost the first ever application for a group costs order in class actions against ANZ and Westpac has indicated it will revive its bid, tweaking a retainer agreement with group members in hopes of winning the court’s approval this time.
A judge has signed off on a $56.3 million settlement in a class action against wealth manager Colonial First State that will see Maurice Blackburn earn $14.5 million in costs, saying it was a good example of the class action regime in operation.