The High Court will hand down its ruling Wednesday in a high-stakes case between ASIC and Westpac that is expected to clarify the line between personal and general financial advice.
While there was no shortage of pain and challenges for law firms as the coronavirus raged across the globe last year, a number of big firms also felt the sting of litigation from disgruntled clients, partners and employees.
Three unions representing Qantas workers have asked the High Court for special leave to appeal a ruling from the Full Federal Court siding with the airline in a dispute over the operation of the JobKeeper wage subsidy.
Payouts in class actions in 2020 largely kept pace with the previous year despite the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, with companies and other defendants paying more than $696 million to settle class actions last year.
Two psychiatrists at the heart of the Chelmsford deep sleep therapy scandal have launched an appeal of a decision dismissing their defamation case against HarperCollins as an attempt to “rewrite history” regarding the harm done to those receiving the controversial treatment.
A unit of Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay around $40 million in legal costs to the lead applicants in a class action over pelvic mesh implants after a judge dismissed the company’s bid to stay the costs until after a high profile appeal is heard next year.
The terms of the Fair Work Act do not guarantee employees of Qantas or potentially any workers in Australia the right to entitlements such as annual leave for work done while receiving JobKeeper payments, the Full Federal Court has ruled.
The Full Federal Court has tossed an appeal by Treasury Wine Estates claiming that Maurice Blackburn and barrister Guy Donnellan breached their obligations in preparing the pleadings in a current shareholder class action against the global winemaker.
US-based consumer goods giant SC Johnson & Son has foreshadowed a bid to strike out a case filed by Reckitt Benckiser over its Raid Max insecticide ads after a Federal Court judge found Reckitt had a “weak” prima facie case.
Two patent attorneys who resigned from Pizzeys Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys to launch a competing business performed work for clients of the boutique IP firm a year after they jumped ship, in breach of their employment contracts, a lawsuit claims.