A court battle between the Australian Taxation Office and PricewaterhouseCoopers over the scope of legal professional privilege claimed by one of its major clients, meat processing giant JBS Australia, has hit a preliminary snag over the consulting giant’s representation of JBS, with a judge warning he might compel the company and its subsidiaries to engage independent lawyers.
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu has succeeded in striking out claims that it made misrepresentations to Rio Tinto when it appointed a partner nearing the mandatory retirement age to a five-year project with the mining giant.
Nine-owned Fairfax has denied that two Australian Financial Review articles implied that venture capitalist Dr Elaine Stead “deliberately” destroyed capital, as it seeks to significantly reduce the defamation case it faces.
The parties in a class action against AMP over changes to its buyer of last resort policy have agreed to a communications protocol making settlement offers and for releases attached to BOLR payments that require exiting financial advisers to waive their claims in the litigation.
PricewaterhouseCoopers won’t get a chance to seek summary dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a former company director who claims her notice of termination through DocuSign was invalid and that she was denied entitlements, with a judge saying the former employee had a claim and that the parties needed to “just get on with it”.
Being called a fraud is not as bad as being labelled a “terrible investor”, venture capitalist Dr Elaine Stead has said during trial in her high-profile defamation case against the Nine-owned Fairfax over two articles about her involvement in the failed investment company Blue Sky.
A judge hearing Pfizer’s application for preliminary discovery against Sandoz over its possible launch of an Enbrel biosimilar has found that such an application must be based on a current belief that the applicant could be entitled to relief.
A judge has enjoined Merck Sharpe and Dohme from launching its 15-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine after finding it would infringe claims of a Wyeth patent for its Prevnar 13 vaccine, despite MSD’s argument that barring it from launching the vaccine would be contrary to the public interest.
Venture capitalist Dr Elaine Stead has taken the stand in a high-profile defamation case against the Nine-owned Fairfax, saying that she felt “shame, embarrassment, humiliation and guilt” over two allegedly defamatory Australian Financial Review articles about her role in the collapsed investment firm Blue Sky.
Car giant Toyota, which is facing a class action over allegedly faulty diesel particulate filters in some of its vehicles, has agreed to step up its compliance with consumer laws, including how it communicates with car owners about mechanical issues.