Maurice Blackburn’s shareholder class action against AMP — the only action not backed by a litigation funder — has been picked as the winner in a fierce battle of law firms vying to lead a high stakes case over the wealth manager’s fees for no service scandal.
Accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers is resisting a notice to produce audit files in a consolidated shareholder class action over the collapse of education and training company Vocation, arguing its partners face a real risk of criminal and civil penalty proceedings and are entited to claim privilege against self-incrimination.
A ruling by a judge deciding a four-way contest to run a shareholder class action against AMP is expected this week, a judgment significant not just because it is the first time a court in Australia has been asked to choose among so many competing representative cases.
A judge has consolidated two shareholder class actions brought against chain logistics company Brambles by Slater & Gordon and Maurice Blackburn, despite the rival firms failing to reach an agreement on the terms of the consolidation following a judge’s criticism of the class action “beauty parade”.
A judge has approved funding terms in a shareholder class action against facility services company Spotless Group under which the funders will get no more than 25 percent of any net settlement or judgment.
An appeals court has handed a win to the Fair Work Ombudsman in its battle for a multimillion dollar penalty against the CFMEU for coordinated strikes at two Hutchison Ports shipping terminals, finding a judge’s fine of just $38,000 did not cut it.
AMP is set to be the next target of a $1 billion class action blitz by Slater & Gordon on behalf of superannuation members, facing a case on behalf of over half a million Australians allegedly gouged by excessive fees on their AMP superannuation accounts.
Vocus Group has been hit with a shareholder class action alleging the telecommunications company made misleading statements ahead of a profit downgrade in 2017 that sent the price of shares tumbling.
Accounting firm Pitcher Partners, which is facing two shareholder class actions over auditing work for Slater & Gordon, is considering filing claims of its own against the law firm’s current auditor, Ernst & Young.
A judge has rejected a bid by former directors of Slater & Gordon to throw out cross claims brought by Pitcher Partners in two shareholder class actions alleging the accounting firm wrongly signed off on the law firm’s financial reports ahead of a share price nosedive, saying it was possible Pitcher Partners’ claimed reliance on representations by the directors was reasonable.