Australia’s four biggest lenders had an expensive year in court last year, but with cases spilling over into the new year and the fallout from the Royal Commission expected to see a litigation blitz by regulators and class action lawyers, much more is in store for the banks in 2019. Here, Lawyerly takes a look at the court cases facing ANZ Banking Group, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank and Westpac Banking Corp so far this year.
A David versus Goliath trade mark battle between an iconic Melbourne pub and McDonald’s over the global food giant’s new hipster cafe will continue, after the parties failed to reach an agreement to put the dispute to rest.
The Supreme Court of Western Australia has stayed counterclaims by Bianca Rinehart and John Hancock and sent a long-running Rinehart family dispute over control of valuable mining assets such as the Hope Downs iron ore mine into arbitration.
Agricultural giant Cargill has been ordered to hand over documents to Glencore regarding its use of an unauthorised type of barley before and after its $420 million acquisition of malt producer Joe White.
Vocational training firm Railtrain knowingly and recklessly misled trainees about their rights to be paid as employees, according to an amended court filing by the Rail, Tram, and Bus Industry Union.
From a record-setting funder’s cut to the first call for ‘“proportionality”, last year saw a number of groundbreaking judgments approving class action settlements worth more than half a billion dollars. Here are the 10 biggest settlements of 2018, and the law firms and funders that negotiated them.
Two law firms have launched formal investigations into possible class actions over Sydney’s defective Opal Tower, inviting owners of units in the “crumbling” building to register their interest in joining legal proceedings.
Actor Craig McLachlan will appear in court next month to face charges of indecent assault, four days after trial kicks off in a high-stakes defamation case brought by the actor against Fairfax Media and the ABC over a joint report accusing him of abuse, sexual harassment and assault during the 2014 stage production of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show”.
Online payment giant PayPal has successfully opposed trade mark registration sought by Australian financial planning software company FinPal, with IP Australia finding the -pal suffix to be a “striking similarity” between the two marks.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is taking a look at its program for granting leniency to cartel whistleblowers in the wake of changes that make it easier for the regulator to bring cartel cases over collusive conduct.
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