Law firm Clayton Utz has sent staff at its Sydney office home amid concerns that one of its employees may have been exposed to the coronavirus.
A judge has directed solicitors for deceased lawyer and funder Mark Elliott to search for his missing mobile phone, which is wanted for potential evidence by a court-appointed contradictor investigating alleged professional misconduct on the part of the legal team behind a settled class action against failed Banksia Securities.
A Federal Court judge has awarded combined damages of $2.6 million to the lead applicants in the Johnson & Johnson pelvic mesh class action, following a landmark ruling in November which found that the pharmaceutical giant did not adequately warn of the risks of the implants.
An individual claimant accusing AMP Financial Planning of ignoring multiple attempts to gain remediation for alleged insurance re-writing conduct was granted permission to voice his displeasure in court, while ASIC and AMP grapple with the details of a remediation program for insurance churn victims.
The lead applicants in seven class actions against auto manufacturers over explosive Takata airbags have criticised the courts for losing their way in ensuring justice is done, in a landmark challenge to class closure orders made in the cases.
The judge who dismissed the ACCC’s challenge to Pacific National’s acquisition of Aurizon’s Acacia Ridge Terminal in Queensland had no power to accept an undertaking by the rail operator as an answer to the competition regulator’s case, an appeals court has been told.
Australian agricultural fund manager Rural Funds Group has won its legal action alleging US short seller Bonitas Research engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct when it described the group’s equity as “ultimately worthless” and sent its share price plummeting.
Volkswagen has appealed a record $125 million penalty handed down over its emissions cheating scandal by a judge who criticised a $75 million settlement agreement with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission as “manifestly inadequate”.
Two shareholder class actions against failed electronics retailer Dick Smith will head to trial in March, after a failed attempt to resolve the long-running dispute in mediation.
The Federal Court has imposed a penalty of almost $5.2 million on AMP Financial Planning after finding it was “reckless” in its “lamentable failure” to properly respond to a now banned adviser who was churning life insurance for higher commissions.