Eleven law firms reign supreme in the legal market for class actions in Australia, with ten or more class actions on their plates, and two firms are way ahead of the pack, according to Lawyerly’s inaugural ranking of the country’s top class action groups.
A judge has refused to join the insurer of collapsed Sydney builder Reed Constructions to insolvent trading proceedings brought by the company’s liquidators, after finding it was unreasonable to expect the insurance company to irrevocably confirm coverage.
ASIC has abandoned its market manipulation case against National Australia Bank contractor Whitebox Trading, just over a month after the financial regulator decided to appeal the Federal Court’s primary decision to throw out their case.
An appeal judge has stayed a $170,000 judgment against the head of a New South Wales law firm after he was found to have engaged in a “particularly sinister” campaign of sexual harassment against a former employee, despite concerns that some of his appeal grounds were “barely arguable”.
The plaintiffs in an investor class action brought against the insurers of Dick Smith have lost an early bid to determine the viability of their claim, amid concerns that the total value of five separate cases against the failed retailer will exhaust the $300 million limit of two insurance policies.
Jailed solicitor and fraudster Brody Clarke was not the mediocre, junior lawyer his boss at Sydney law firm Atanaskovic Hartnell made him out to be, a judge has said, but was considered a “young hot shot” who perpetrated a “catastrophic” $9 million fraud on media mogul Bruce Gordon in the scope of his employment.
A shareholder class action against CIMIC Group will fight a strike out application it has slammed as an “opportunistic” late-stage move by the global engineering firm made only because the trial was previously vacated.
Ink cartridge reseller Calidad has been ordered to show evidence of its finances in support of its application to stay a Full Court judgment while it waits for the outcome of its special leave application to the High Court in a landmark patent infringement dispute with printer giant Seiko Epson.
The parties in two shareholder class actions brought against online fashion retailer Surfstitch will make one “last, final attempt” to resolve the proceedings in mediation after a proposed settlement was thwarted by a judge last year, a court heard Friday.
The plaintiffs in three competing RCR Tomlinson shareholder class actions have been told to “get their act together” by the judge who forcibly consolidated their proceedings, after the parties revealed they were as yet unable to agree on joint funding terms.
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