A judge has approved $725,000 in fees for Maddens Lawyers in signing off on a $1.2 million settlement in a class action over a 2017 fire at the Coolaroo recycling plant fire in Victoria, saying if the matter went to trial the firm’s bill would “far exceed” the value of the case.
A failed challenge by baby food maker Bellamy’s Australia to a decision rejecting its application to limit legal costs in two class actions was “not strong”, but was not so unreasonable as to put them on the hook for indemnity costs, the Full Federal Court has ruled.
The Suncorp Group unit and directors at the centre of a class action over allegedly conflicted remuneration have slammed the case as “misconceived” and argue it was not validly commenced.
Westpac has offered an appeals court two more reasons to affirm its victory in a closely watched responsible lending case brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission over almost 262,000 home loans.
Two name partners at law firm Tucker & Cowen have lost another attempt to dismiss a case brought against them by the receivers of failed fund manager Equititrust over $17.5 million in funds allegedly obtained by deceptive means.
A former HWL Ebsworth special counsel has appealed a ruling that tossed his unlawful dismissal case against the firm as “trivial” and “wholly unrealistic”.
ASIC and other government regulators bringing enforcement action in the docket of one Federal Court judge must abide by a strict new protocol to prevent a repeat of the corporate watchdog’s “wait and see” strategy in a case against ex-Murray Goulburn directors that came close, the judge said, to bringing the administration of justice into disrepute.
A judge has refused a bid by two former Murray Goulburn executives to throw out a disqualification case brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, despite admonishing the corporate regulator for its delay in bringing the case and establishing a protocol for regulators filing cases in his docket.
Comments made by the director of three firms accused of pushing life insurance onto vulnerable consumers during the banking royal commission may come back to haunt him in a civil penalties proceeding brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
The plaintiffs in an investor class action filed against Dick Smith’s insurers want a separate hearing from four other representative and company proceedings against the failed electronics retailer, arguing there would be only the “thinnest basis” for concurrent proceedings if their strike out application was successful.
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