There is an “embarrassing” foreign influence on Australian laws, a plaintiff law firm has told a parliamentary inquiry into class actions, after revealing that Treasurer Josh Frydenberg met with an affiliate of the US Chamber of Commerce in May, shortly before announcing a crackdown on litigation funders.
The law firm that represented elderly victims of Ponzi schemer Bradley Sherwin has told the government’s class action inquiry of its “painful” relationship with the funder involved in the proceedings, which eventually saw the firm bow out of the case because of a conflict of interest.
The litigation funder behind the class action over Banksia Securities’ collapse has admitted it misled a costs consultant retained to report to the court on the reasonableness of the fees in the case, but says its commission should not take a hit as a result because the misconduct occurred after the litigation settled against Banksia’s trustee for $64 million.
Administrators for The PAS Group have failed in their bid to have almost $1.4M in rent declared an unsecured debt in the event the fashion retailer goes into liquidation amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Veterinary pharmaceutical company Norbrook Laboratories has filed court proceedings after a delegate of IP Australia tossed its opposition to a patent by Bayer New Zealand for a bovine antiseptic treatment.
A senior officer from the ACCC has rejected claims that the regulator took legal advice from immunity applicant JPMorgan before launching its high profile criminal cartel case against ANZ, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank.
AMP Life has been hit with a class action alleging its financial representatives pushed inflated insurance policies onto 100,000 customers while knowing that better policies could be found through other providers.
Shine Lawyers has brought a class action in the Federal Court against cruise operators Carnival and Princess Cruise Lines over their handling of a deadly coronavirus outbreak aboard the Ruby Princess cruise ship that is linked to at least 20 deaths.
HWL Ebsworth, the law firm at the centre of a coronavirus outbreak, is facing an investigation by WorkSafe that could result in criminal charges for breaches of workplace health and safety laws.
A national law firm has dodged an application for access to the files of its current and former clients brought by lawyers investigating a possible class action over allegedly excessive legal costs in personal injury litigation.