A judge has narrowed discovery in a class action against the Commonwealth of Australia over allegedly unlawful Robodebt payments, criticising the lead applicants for persisting with an approach to discovery that “was not a particularly helpful one”.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has come up short in its challenge to a ruling that dismissed its case against TPG over contract terms that allowed the internet provider to keep customers’ unused prepaid funds on phone or internet plans.
The law firm behind a long-running class action against Pitcher Partners over its auditing of Slater and Gordon is seeking court approval to drop the case, leaving the funder that bankrolled the proceeding to defend an application for indemnity costs.
Revelations of fraud this week in the Banksia class action have put the ability of judges to scrutinise litigation funding agreements in the spotlight of a parliamentary class action inquiry, with one MP claiming the judiciary was “stretched beyond capacity”.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission told the government’s class action inquiry that it was committed to making the existing class action regime work with upcoming regulations that will spell the end of its “light touch” approach to litigation funders.
Lawyer Mark Elliott was the “puppet master” behind the Banksia class action, retaning an old school mate to represent the lead applicant but in reality funding and running the proceedings with barristers Norman O’Bryan SC and Michael Symons to line their pockets at the expense of group members, a court has been told.
The operator of Dreamworld in Queensland has pleaded guilty to three charges over the 2016 deaths of four people on the theme park’s now demolished Thunder River Rapids ride.
Tile maker Ceramiche Caesar has prevailed in its challenge to a judge’s ruling allowing building products manufacturer Caesarstone to register two trade marks despite a finding that they were deceptively similar to one of its marks.
Global law firm DLA Piper has boosted its restructuring practice with the hire of former Ashurst partner Lionel Meehan for its Melbourne team, the firm’s fourth new hire in recent months.
AMP has been hit with a cliass action by a group of financial planners over changes to its buyer of last resort policy last year, which cut the number of authoried advisers and retreated from a promise to buy back their businesses at a price based on a set multiple.
For information on rights and reprints, contact subscriptions@lawyerly.com.au
