A judge has agreed to consolidate two shareholder class actions against Treasury Wine Estates over an earnings downgrade in January and will let two law firms jointly run the case, over the winemaker’s objections.
Two competing shareholder class actions against global winemaker and distributor Treasury Wine Estates over an earnings downgrade in January this year should be consolidated, and a judge should pick just one law firm to run the case, a court has heard.
Fonterra could bring counter-claims against dairy farmers that brought a class action alleging they were unpaid when the company slashed milk prices in 2016, a court has heard, after debt recovery proceedings by Fonterra against the lead applicants were joined with the class action.
Maddens has once again been criticised for its non-compliant costs agreements, three months after receiving similar feedback from a Victoria Supreme Court judge overseeing the firm’s bushfire class actions.
A claim by Treasury Wine Estates that Maurice Blackburn — but no other law firm — is prohibited from bringing a shareholder class action over disclosure breaches related to its US business had an “air of unreality” about it, a judge has said.
Treasury Wine Estates will seek to shut down a shareholder class action brought by Maurice Blackburn after accusing the law firm of breaching its obligations and using documents from a prior lawsuit against the global wine distributor in the current proceedings.
A leading class actions lawyer from Maurice Blackburn “stumbled across” allegedly confidential information embedded in a Treasury Wine Estates’ shareholder presentation and used it in the law firm’s class action pleadings, a court has heard.
A judge has signed off on a $2 million payout for Maddens Lawyers in a class action against electricity provider Powercor over a 2018 St Patrick’s Day bushfire in Victoria that settled last year for $17.5 million, despite finding that the law firm’s cost agreement with group members was void.