A judge has said that an underpayments class action’s challenge to hospitality giant Merivale’s argument that it does not owe back wages because it relied on an enterprise agreement it believed was valid should be heard before trial.
Wealth management firm Colonial First State has lost its bid to shield emails with internal counsel about investment options for its FirstChoice super fund after a judge found a class action applicant had joint legal professional privilege.
The entity that employs the workforce of the On The Run convenience store chain has agreed to pay $5.8 million to settle a class action accusing it of underpaying over 8,000 workers over a six-year period.
The solicitor found to have acted as a “postbox” to hide conflicts of interest in the class action over Banksia Securities’ collapse has been suspended from the roll of practitioners in Victoria for two years, after a judge found he was presently unfit to practice.
The judge overseeing the scandal-ridden Banksia Securities class action has questioned why a solicitor on record for the case hasn’t handed over his ill-gotten fees despite professed regret for his actions and his claims to have reformed.
The behaviour of the legal team running the Banksia Securities class action was “reprehensible” and the solicitor who allowed himself to be controlled by lawyer and funder Mark Elliott should be struck from the court’s roll of practitioners, a judge heard Tuesday.
A solicitor fighting to remain on the roll after his involvement in the infamous Banksia Securities class action has told of his regret at having lunch with the funder behind the case eight years ago — a meeting that set in motion a plot driven by lawyers to deceive seven Supreme Court judges and defraud thousands of investors.
A judge has denied an “invasive” bid to search hospitality giant Merivale’s payroll systems ahead of an upcoming mediation in a $129 million underpayment class action covering 13,500 employees.
Commenting on the unprecedented nature of the case against her client — the so-called postbox solicitor in the Banksia Securities class action — a senior barrister has told a court of her shock at the conduct of her former colleague at the bar, Norman O’Bryan, who acted as lead counsel in the scandal-ridden litigation.
Class action claims brought by trainees against convenience store chain On The Run may be discontinued because of high costs and lack of commonality if an application before the Federal Court is successful.