The Australian Securities and Investigations is making up for lost time, ramping up its investigation and litigation efforts following a blistering critique by the banking royal commission of its soft enforcement approach.
The Federal Court’s top judge has urged ASIC and ANZ to continue their “litigation good faith” in the corporate cop’s action over $35 million in allegedly illegal customer fees charged by the bank, and cautioned the two sides against slogging it out with a “staged trench warfare” mentality.
After defeating the corporate regulator’s case alleging it breached responsible lending laws, banking giant Westpac has won a reprieve from lodging a defence in a related class action.
A judge has questioned a common fund application in a class action against two IAG entities over allegedly worthless add-on insurance, saying there may be a “degree of chaos” if the order was approved only to be undone by a pending High Court decision.
The federal Attorney-General has unveiled a new system for the allocation of more than $1 billion in external legal services to the Commonwealth government over the next five years, with just two Australian law firms approved in every practice area.
An Adelaide-based wine exporter which was fined $352,000 for infringing three trade marks of a Treasury Wine Estates unit has been ordered into liquidation by the Victorian Supreme Court.
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”.
US cold storage giant Emergent Cold’s proposed takeover of rival Australian company AB Oxford faces scrutiny by the competition regulator, which has raised preliminary concerns that the deal would hike up prices and bring down service.
Fairfax Media has challenged a judge’s “gravely serious” suggestion that one of its journalists lied about a confidential source, during the first day of a two-day appeal hearing over a $280,000 defamation judgment awarded to Chinese-Australian businessman Chau Chak Wing.
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.
For information on rights and reprints, contact subscriptions@lawyerly.com.au
