The son of the lawyer behind the Banksia Securities class action has effectively abandoned his appeal of a court judgment that found he knowingly and actively assisted his father in a fraudulent scheme to pocket almost $20 million in inflated fees and commission.
Courts stepped up their scrutiny of class action settlements in 2022, with judges grappling with difficult issues such as funding commissions in employment cases and whether settlements, even those worth hundreds of millions of dollars, were fair to group members.
Requests by litigants for judges to disqualify themselves from presiding over cases were largely denied last year, in a raft of decisions containing lessons for litigants weighing up their own recusal bids in 2023.
Companies associated with the wife of disgraced senior barrister Norman O’Bryan can’t get a new judge to hear their battle against a third-party costs summons that would make them jointly liable for a $21.5 million judgment for investors in a class action over Banksia Securities’ collapse.
A class action on behalf of businesses claiming harm from the 2020 hotel quarantine debacle has fought back against the state of Victoria’s bid to push the case off until a criminal action against the state’s Department of Health has been heard.
A judge has pulled up legal teams in a class action against the state of Victoria on behalf of businesses that allegedly suffered loss from the 2020 hotel quarantine debacle, saying progress in the case has been “extremely slow”.
A judge has approved a $33 million settlement in a class action against vocational education provider Box Hill Institute, but taken the ax to a law firm’s proposed 18.25 per cent loading on its fees, saying courts shouldn’t approve uplifts for run of the mill legal work.
The judge whose ruling against the legal team behind the Banksia class action fraud helped redeem the battered reputation of the civil justice system may be asked to disqualify himself from the final fight in the drawn out case.
The High Court has dismissed an application by accounting giant KPMG to transfer a class action over the collapse of mining company Arrium from Victoria to NSW.
Dead or broke, the class action lawyers who schemed to defraud investors in failed Banksia Securities should not escape a $21 million judgment for damages and costs, a court has heard.