The mastermind behind an alleged fraudulent scheme by members of the legal team running the class action over the collapse of Banksia Securities was a “brilliant operator”, his son has told a court.
A judge has found that a litigation funder’s involvement in settlement negotiations without the presence of the applicant’s lawyers in a shareholder class action against Spotless Group, which recently settled for $95 million, was “inappropriate”.
Former Blue Sky Capital venture capitalist Dr Elaine Stead is seeking over $671,000 in damages from the publisher of the Australian Financial Review over two articles she describes as a “misogynist attack” and “vitriolic abuse” that did significant damage to her professional reputation.
An Australian concrete product maker has settled a lawsuit brought by US industrial equipment manufacturer Illinois Tool Works over its patents for precast concrete products.
The son of the lawyer and funder at the centre of an alleged fee scandal in the Banksia Securities class action was not his father’s righthand man because the late Mark Elliott did not need a righthand man, his co-accused, former senior barrister Norman O’Bryan, has told a court.
A judge has again postponed signing off on a $1.9 million settlement in a $65 million sham contracting class action against fundraiser Appco Group after expressing “disquiet” about the deal in which the 1,100 group members would get “diddly squat” and ordered that notices be sent to group members informing them of their option to seek alternative lawyers.
A $50 million settlement has been reached in a long-running shareholder class action against defunct vocational training company Vocation that also spawned multiple cross-claims against the failed company’s auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers, law firm Johnson Winter & Slattery and individual directors.
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is seeking to strike out the misleading and deceptive conduct claims in a $4 million age discrimination lawsuit brought by a former partner, calling them “farcical” and “absurd”.
Google is seeking to assuage ACCC concerns that its planned $3 billion acquisition of fitness device company Fitbit would further entrench its market power by giving it access to a treasure trove of user data, promising the regulator that it will not use data collected through wearables for advertising purposes for at least 10 years.
Logistics services provider Qube has resolved a lawsuit that accused the Port of Newcastle of misusing its power in the market for port services by denying Qube’s request to use its own equipment to provide dry bulk unloading services at the port.