A judge has again postponed signing off on a $1.9 million settlement in a $65 million sham contracting class action against fundraiser Appco Group after expressing “disquiet” about the deal in which the 1,100 group members would get “diddly squat” and ordered that notices be sent to group members informing them of their option to seek alternative lawyers.
A $50 million settlement has been reached in a long-running shareholder class action against defunct vocational training company Vocation that also spawned multiple cross-claims against the failed company’s auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers, law firm Johnson Winter & Slattery and individual directors.
A unit of telecommunications contractor Tandem has lost an appeal in its fight over the validity of a sham contracting class action by technicians alleging they were misclassified as contractors and wrongly denied benefits.
A judge has confined the scope of questions lawyers can ask disgraced senior barrister Norman O’Bryan when he takes the stand this week to give evidence for the son of the mastermind behind an alleged fee scam in the Banksia Securities class action.
Mining giant BHP has lost a fight to keep foreign group members out of a shareholder class action over the Fundao dam failure in Brazil five years ago.
Treasury Wine Estates has accused plaintiffs law firm Maurice Blackburn and barrister Guy Donnellan of “taking advantage” of their privileged position by using evidence discovered in a settled class action to file a second case against the wine maker.
A judge has indicated she will approve GetSwift’s plans to relocate to Canada, despite concerns raised by ASIC, but will wait until the company has received approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board.
A judge has lashed out at the legal team behind a class action against S&P over allegedly misleading credit ratings for filing hearsay evidence in support of an application to serve the ratings giant overseas, saying that “nobody who is a first year law student” would say the evidence was admissible.
Logistics software company GetSwift has tried to assure the Federal Court that an attempt to relocate to Canada is not for the purpose of avoiding pecuniary penalties and damages in civil proceedings brought by ASIC and a $50 million shareholder class action.
Supermarket chain Romeo’s has been hit with a second class action for allegedly underpaying managers across several stores in NSW.