Cash Converters has agreed to pay $42.5 million to settle a class action brought on behalf of consumers that took out personal loans, after reaching a $16.4 million settlement last year in a class action over interest charged on short-term loans.
A judge has signed off on a settlement of a long-running class action against Westpac unit BankSA, and has ruled the law firm that brought the case has an equitable right to unpaid legal costs for investigating the case before it found a funder.
Ex-Tennis Australia director and current Dentons partner Steve Healy, who is facing action by the corporate regulator over the broadcast rights to the Australian Open, has lost a bid for access to six years of emails between two other former board members.
Mining magnate Andrew Forest’s Fortescue Metals is facing a possible compensation claim after losing its appeal of a ruling that granted native title to to the Yinjibarndi people over a large section of land in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
A partner at Big Six firm Ashurst has challenged a NSW Supreme Court decision appointing liquidators to his Point Piper home in a protracted dispute with an ex-judge neighbour, saying the judge was confused and made an order which was an “affront to our system of adversarial justice”.
Activist US short seller Bonitas Research is refusing to participate in legal action brought in Australia by Rural Funds Group, as it continues to press allegations of fraud, which sent the agricultural fund manager’s share price plummeting.
Justice David Hammerschlag of the NSW Supreme Court has a way with words that readily lends itself to dramatic courtroom headlines. The “Hammer,” as he is known, also pulls no punches and is quick with one liners that keep counsel on their toes. Here, Lawyerly looks at some of the recent best moments inside courtroom 7D.
Gaming and entertainment giant Konami has lost a bid to amend its defence in a patent case by rival Aristocrat Technologies on the second day of a damages hearing, with the judge finding the changes were contrary to the interests of justice and would require postponing the trial until late next year.
Crown Resorts has settled its feud with the Australian Taxation Office over a $396 million tax bill stemming from the acquisition of Las Vegas-based Cannery Casino Resorts as part of the company’s failed North American expansion.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority will not challenge a Federal Court ruling that dismissed its case against fund manager IOOF as “unpersuasive”, “fundamentally inadequate” and “tenuous in the extreme”.