A judge has approved a 40 per cent group costs order for the law firm that’s running a class action against KPMG and former directors of collapsed mining company Arrium, the highest approved since the state began allowing lawyers to earn a cut of class action awards.
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.
In a victory for Victorian independent candidate Zoe Daniel, the state’s Supreme Court has found that promotional signs displayed on lawns did not fall foul of a local council ban on unauthorised displays.
Lawyers behind a scheme to defraud members of a class action over the collapse of Banksia Securities have offered $10.6 million to resolve a case that has put them on the hook for at least double that sum.
A funder that’s helping foot the bill in a class action against Arrium’s former directors and KPMG may withdraw support if the law firm that’s running it is not granted an order awarding it 40 per cent of any award or settlement.
A lawyer whose conduct in the Banksia Securites class action was said to have left a stain on the integrity of the legal profession has secured a temporary stay of a decision by Victoria’s legal watchdog to disqualify him from practicing law for four years.
The solicitor who was found to have acted as a “postbox” to conceal conflicts of interest in the Banksia class action has lost his practicing certificate ahead of a hearing to show cause why he should remain on the roll.
The litigation funder behind a scam to defraud members of a class action over the collapse of Banksia Securities has entered liquidation, and the funder’s two surviving directors will be among potential targets of attempts to recover money to pay a $21.7 million court judgment.
Bayer has lost its bid to redact the names and contact details of potential group members from discovered documents in a Slater & Gordon-led class action over the drug maker’s Essure contraceptive device.
The lead applicant in a superannuation class action against two IOOF units has successfully appealed a decision that barred the case from proceeding under a carveout in Victoria’s Supreme Court Act forbidding class actions involving trust property.