Maurice Blackburn has partly prevailed in an appeal of a judge’s decision to put the brakes on its shareholder class action against BHP while greenlighting a competing case brought by Phi Finney McDonald, with an appeals court ordering the rival law firms to negotiate a deal to consolidate their litigation.
Oil company PTTEP has objected to Indonesian seaweed farmers using the word “oil” in their evidence in the Montarra oil spill class action, arguing they are not qualified to identify oil.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has approved an application by plastics manufacturer OxoPak for a certification trade mark for certain biodegradable plastics.
The liquidators of Gold Coast fund manager Equititrust are seeking court approval of a confidential settlement of two proceedings brought against KPMG for allegedly failing to properly audit the firm prior to its collapse.
The court has ordered Australia’s biggest internet service providers to block seven websites from “ripping” audio files from music videos on YouTube, in what the judge described as “industrial scale copyright infringement”.
A judge has questioned whether he should approve the $3 million legal bill in the settled Discovery Metals shareholder class action against KPMG, amid concerns the plaintiff’s lawyers, Piper Alderman, breached legal profession regulations by failing to update their estimated costs.
Australian law firm Mills Oakley has established an IP practice in its Melbourne office, snatching a senior lawyer from rival K&L Gates, which is now set to lose five IP specialists in the space of almost two months.
Maurice Blackburn’s funding model rejected by a judge overseeing a beauty parade of class actions against BHP appeared structured to incentivise the firm to push up its legal fees, an appeals court said Monday on the first day of a high stakes hearing challenging a decision to shut down two of three competing cases against the mining giant.
La Trobe University has reached a settlement with the head of its law school, Dr Patrick Keyzer, to resolve legal action alleging it breached its workplace obligations when it suspended him over bullying complaints. The university dropped its disciplinary proceedings against Keyzer, with no adverse findings being made.
The National Australia Bank has filed a lawsuit against its Singapore-based captive insurance unit and three syndicates of global insurance giant Lloyd’s seeking coverage for two consumer redress schemes related to the bank’s sale of interest rate hedging products and fixed rate tailored business loans.
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