The judge who presided over a rare securities class action trial last year against department store Myer will deliver judgment in the case this month that could be the first ruling on causation in Australian shareholder class actions and has the potential to have a chilling effect on law firms bringing the cases.
The High Court has shut down a lawsuit by mortgage aggregator Connective Services over the transfer of one third of the company’s shares after finding the proceeding prejudiced shareholders and contravened the Corporations Act.
National law firm Holding Redlich is investigating a shareholder class action against Smiles Inclusive, just one week after the embattled Gold Coast dental company reported a $31 million statutory loss.
The judge overseeing the long-running class action over allegedly faulty Ford PowerShift transmissions has told the applicants they might need to put up considerable cash security to cover the “war and peace of discovery” disputes, after Ford slammed the delayed request for documents as “complete and utter nonsense”.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued a formal warning to national broadband network operator NBN Co for what the regulator called a “serious breach” of its non-discrimination obligations to retail service providers.
Three former directors of billion-dollar financial advisory firm Linchpin Capital Group will face two days of questioning in examination proceedings filed on behalf of an investor five months after the company was wound up for running an unregistered investment scheme and misleading investors.
Gaming giant Aristocrat Technologies Australia can look over the tax returns of rival Konami Australia as the two companies prepare for next week’s hearing over how much Konami should pay in damages for patent infringement.
Silicon Valley giant Apple can patent an iPhone configuration that allows users to swap out a set of icons with a swipe of the screen while leaving other unchanged, overcoming an examiner’s objection that the invention is obvious and lacks inventive step.
Ernst & Young, which is facing a lawsuit brought by the receiver of a fund overseen by failed financial services firm LM Investment Management, has lost its bid to file a claim for damages against LMIM, with a judge saying the auditor’s case was “flawed” and “counterintuitive”.
The judge overseeing a class action against mineral sands producer Iluka Resources has slammed the submissions from both sides over a bid for an extra $2.6 million in security for costs, calling them “completely out of control” and “totally out of proportion”.
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