Law firms would be able to charge contingency fees and the corporate disclosure obligations would go under the microscope as part of a shake-up of the class action regime recommended by the Australian Law Reform Commission.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has called for the big accounting firms to focus on “culture and talent” after a new report found one in five audits had no reasonable basis for clearing company financial reports of material misstatements.
Teva has taken generic drug maker Pharmacor to court for allegedly threatening to infringe its patent for a Parkinson’s drug.
International law firm Jones Day has expanded its intellectual property team in Sydney, hiring experienced patent litigator Andrew Rankine from Ashurst as its second local partner.
A franchisee’s $6.1 million case against Domino’s Pizza accusing the fast food chain of misleading him about the sales he could expect from his two Surfers Paradise stores has been resolved out of court.
Car giant Ford will face a claim of unconsionable conduct in a trial of a class action over its defective PowerShift transmission that is now scheduled to run twice as long as originally thought, but claims on behalf of second-hand Ford vehicle owners are out.
Responding to a judge’s criticism of the class action “beauty parade”, two rival law firms have come up with a plan to deal with their competing shareholder class actions against Brambles.
US company Branhaven has won leave to amend its cow genome patent after a judge dismissed opposition by industry bodies Meat & Livestock Australia and Dairy Australia as “flimsy” and “bizarre”.
GPS device makers TomTom, Navman and Garmin will no longer claim they offer users lifetime services, after the ACCC flagged the claims for being potentially false, misleading and deceptive.
Clive Palmer has lost a fight to stay criminal proceedings alleging his company breached takeover laws, with a judge slamming the Queensland mining tycoon’s claims the charges were politically motivated and saying there was “nothing exceptional” to warrant interference from the court.
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