Approving coal mine projects is not the business of courts, the Morrison government has argued in its challenge to a landmark class action judgment that found it had a duty of care to protect Australian children from the effects of climate change.
The solicitor behind the successful challenge to the claim for ill-gotten spoils by the Banksia Securities class action legal team says he draws little comfort from the conclusion by the judge who strongly condemned the misconduct that the legal system is capable of regulating itself. More needs to be done to root out the systemic causes of the arrogance on display in the case, he says.
Two class actions against Pitcher Partners and Arnold Bloch Leibler over advice given ahead of Slater & Gordon’s disastrous $1.2 billion Quindell acquisition will proceed to trial next month after mediation between the parties failed to resolve the cases.
This week’s judgment referring the conduct of lawyers behind the Banksia class action to prosecutors shows the effectiveness of unique legislative provisions in Victoria that should serve as a blueprint for federal reform, says barrister and University of New South Wales adjunct professor Dr Peter Cashman.
A class action over a public housing lockdown during Melbourne’s second COVID-19 wave in July last year is seeking to discontinue battery and negligence claims against the Victorian government, a court has heard.
The Murray Darling Basin Authority can’t rely on defences claiming it is a “public or other authority” to limit the liability of a class action brought over alleged negligent water management, an appeals court has found.
Class action claims brought by trainees against convenience store chain On The Run may be discontinued because of high costs and lack of commonality if an application before the Federal Court is successful.
Lawyers running the scandal-ridden Banksia class action have been struck from the roll of practitioners, will face criminal investigation and must pay group members $11.7 million in damages.
AMP and a number of its financial planning subsidiaries could face 1.2 million individual claims if they win a bid to declass a group proceeding over allegedly excessive insurance premiums, a judge has said.
A six-week trial in a shareholder class action against Crown Resorts set to begin at the end of October will start off virtually and shift to an in-person hearing once COVID-19 restrictions are eased in Victoria.