A former executive of hospital operator Healthe Care Pty has pleaded guilty to one charge of insider trading for acquiring a large number of shares in Pulse Health while in possession of inside information about the private hospital operator.
The High Court has denied special leave to unions representing 20,000 Qantas workers who were stood down during the coronavirus pandemic to challenge a ruling that they were not entitled to paid sick or compassionate leave.
Ernst & Young has delayed in filing its evidence in a lawsuit by Sydney-based investment firm London City Equities over its auditing of collapsed soda ash maker Penrice after hiring Holding Redlich to replace Allens just a few months before a mediation deadline.
The stage is set for a beauty parade of two shareholder class actions against Freedom Foods and Deloitte, and the judge overseeing the cases has embraced the recommendation of the High Court to appoint an independent barrister to represent group members in the contest.
Commercial and class action firm Banton Group is investigating a shareholder class action against embattled technology company Nuix in relation to its pre-IPO disclosures which could also ensnare shareholder Macquarie and its executives, auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers and the joint lead managers on its float.
A judge has refused to sign off on $13.8 million in fees sought by law firm Maurice Blackburn as part of a $44.5 million settlement in a class action against Woolworths, saying the amount was “intuitively out of the range” of what was a reasonable legal bill for the case.
A nearly 100-year-old Bordeaux estate that makes the Vieux Château Certan wine, which retails for at least $500, has taken a Tasmanian winemaker to court for allegedly trying to hijack its name and making knockoff wines that copy its distinctive pink lid and neck of its bottles.
National law firm HWL Ebsworth expelled a former equity partner ahead of its failed initial public offering specifically so he would not participate in the IPO and “others would benefit to a greater extent”, a court has heard.
The failed franchisor behind the Jump Swim Schools brand has been hit with a $23 million penalty for what a Federal Court judge found were “very serious” consumer law contraventions.
A record number of class actions were filed in the past year but shareholder class actions, which have been the primary target of the federal government’s attack on the class action regime, have decreased in significance, says Professor Vince Morabito.
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