Crown Resorts has been given the greenlight to challenge a court order allowing former employees to talk to lawyers for a class action over its business in China, but the class has another chance to make its case that the ruling should stand.
Concerns about duplicative costs in multiple class actions are better addressed by case management decisions aimed at cutting excessive expense, not by limiting the amount lawyers representing group members can spend, the Full Federal Court has said in dismissing an appeal by baby food maker Bellamy’s.
Agricultural fund manager Rural Funds Group has briefed a top-tier law firm to bring “unprecedented” legal action against US company Bonitas Research, after the activist short seller accused the group of fraud and sent its share price plummeting.
Bellamy’s has lost its appeals court battle to limit the costs incurred by lawyers jointly running two shareholder class actions against the baby food maker.
Six individuals interviewed by ASIC in relation to the collapse of sandalwood producer Quintis have sought leave to intervene in the regulator’s case against the company’s founder, Frank Wilson, after he sought discovery from ASIC of interview transcripts.
The judge overseeing proceedings brought against logistics company GetSwift has refused the corporate regulator’s request for another year’s worth of documents, saying it could effectively require the company to start the discovery process over again.
A judge has sent insolvency firm Ferrier Hodgson back to the drawing board to redraft its pleadings against the former directors and auditors of collapsed construction company Forge Group, warning that the overlapping actions were at risk of becoming an “unrideable bull”.
Law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan will push forward with an investor class action against failed engineering company RCR Tomlinson on its own, with two firms driving competing actions agreeing to step down after a judge forcibly consolidated all three proceedings.
The applicants in the Iluka Resources shareholder class action have less than a week to lock-in a $1.25 million security for costs, after the judge overseeing the case asked if he was allowed to dismiss proceedings himself following six months of being “very patient” about ongoing funding dramas.
A judge has ordered ASIC and defence shipbuilder Austal to try to narrow the scope of documents at the centre of the regulator’s case challenging the company’s claims of legal professional privilege.