Despite COVID-19 case numbers in Australia hitting historic highs and the threat of an economic recession, law firms are cautiously optimistic about their ability to weather the storm without redundancies or reductions in staff pay.
A firm created by solicitor Mark Elliott as a vehicle to launch shareholder class actions has been taken to court by Myer over an unpaid $1.4 million legal bill racked up in defending a class action that was thrown out as an abuse of process.
A PwC partner who the ATO claims was assigned to work on a matter for meat processing company JBS to bring a “cloak of legal privilege” earned hundreds of dollars less per hour than his non-lawyer assistants, a court has heard.
A judge will allow workers in a sham contracting class action against technical services contractor BSA to rejoin the case after opting out, saying the company’s communications during the opt out period were capable of misleading “at least a significant proportion” of group members.
Software company DST Bluedoor is fighting to access communications between its former founding director and AMP in a $35.5 million legal stoush alleging the financial services firm induced 11 employees to jump ship after licensing its online platform.
Meat processing company and former PricewaterhouseCoopers client JBS has slammed as a “nightmare to the rule of law” a claim by the Commissioner of Taxation that the accounting giant’s internal protocols destroyed the company’s lawyer-client relationship.
Water supplier and dam operator Seqwater has won its high-stakes challenge to a ruling finding it liable for the 2011 Queensland floods and sticking it with half the damages owed to thousands of class action members.
The lead applicant in a class action against Volkswagen over defective Takata airbags has been hit with indemnity costs for his failed case after a NSW Supreme Court judge found that deficiencies in aspects of the case were “manifestly clear”.
The High Court has found that media outlets are responsible for the publication of defamatory third-party comments on news stories posted to their Facebook pages, upholding a landmark decision by the NSW Supreme Court.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia unit Colonial First State Investments is facing penalties after the Federal Court found it misled its customers about their rights and obligations relating to the MySuper reforms passed by the federal government in 2012.