Target Australia is facing a possible class action for allegedly failing to pay staff overtime or penalties for time that they worked, two months after revealing it underpaid staff at its retail stores $9 million.
As the world fights the COVID-19 pandemic IP offices around the world, like IP Australia, are accommodating the current reality. As with courts and other governmental institutions, these offices have adopted measures such as relaxing statutory deadlines and handling matters in accordance with social distancing practices. But there are several important points to observe in terms of engaging with IP Australia during this time, writes Gilbert + Tobin’s Lisa Lennon, John Lee, Chris Williams, Mindaugas Skavronskas and Sidney Kung.
Communications software company Cellos Software has been awarded $42 million in damages from its former CEO and director Jason Huber, who secretly bought and sold millions of company shares for personal profit.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, lawyers are litigating from their lounge rooms and negotiating contracts on new technology platforms. While the profession has embraced the change, working from home exposes firms to specific IT security risks.
Defunct financial adviser Dover Financial has sued three separate law firms for allegedly negligent advice over a ‘client protection policy’ that the Federal Court found was misleading, deceptive and an “exercise in Orwellian doublespeak”.
The second of two class actions brought against Westpac over alleged anti-money laundering breaches has been denied discovery of what the bank claims are commercially sensitive documents until the law firms behind the class actions work out how their competing cases will proceed.
Grain handling group Viterra has been denied a post-hearing bid to reopen a lawsuit brought by Cargill Australia over its $420 million acquisition of Joe White, with a judge finding the application would lead to “substantial disruption and delay”.
The High Court has agreed to weigh in on a decision last year to pick Maurice Blackburn’s case as the winner of a beauty parade of shareholder class actions against AMP over the wealth manager’s controversial fees for no service.
Ashurst will cut partner and staff salaries by 20 per cent to brace for an anticipated slowdown in the markets where it operates due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Publication of a document outlining the Australian Stock Exchange’s reasons for suspending the shares of ISignthis would be ‘damaging’ to the fintech company and should be barred until after the trial, a court has heard.