Last-minute discovery of emails by the solicitor facing accusations of complicity in a fraudulent scheme by his father and the barristers leading a class action over the collapse of Banksia Securities has been labelled a “professional disgrace” that has twice delayed his trial.
The judge overseeing a trial over alleged misconduct by lawyers behind the Banksia class action has blasted a bid by disgraced senior counsel Norman O’Bryan to file a notice of proportionate liability ahead of his turn in the witness stand, saying the notice flew in the face of the barrister’s decision to concede defeat in the case.
Senior barrister Norman O’Bryan, who has conceded that he should be struck from the roll for his conduct in an alleged class action fee scandal, has been subpoenaed to give evidence for lawyer Alex Elliott, the son of O’Bryan’s co-conspirator.
A court has ordered Theta Asset Management, a collapsed financial services provider that ran a property investment scheme targeting retirees, to pay a $2 million penalty for issuing defective product disclosure statements.
Two more law firms have been joined to a lawsuit by defunct financial advisor Dover Financial accusing three law firms of providing negligent advice regarding an inaptly titled client protection policy which a judge found was “highly misleading” and “an exercise in Orwellian doublespeak”.
Litigation funder Augusta Ventures has won its challenge to a landmark ruling that it pay $3.1 million in security for the costs of two Fair Work class actions it is financing on behalf of casual mine workers.
A judge overseeing the misconduct trial in the Banksia Securities class action has rejected a bid by a lawyer for the deceased cost consultant in the case to separately determine whether a cause of action survives his death.
The son of Banksia class action funder Mark Elliott, who has been accused of complicity in a fraudulent scheme to maximise the profits of the lawyers in the case, was young and inexperienced and didn’t know his father’s conduct was wrong, his barrister has told a court.
A routine practice by the funder behind the scandal-ridden Banksia class action of deleting emails, documented in a letter by his solicitors just days before his death, isn’t consistent with the electronic record maintained in another class action in which he was involved, a court overseeing a trial in the case has heard.
A judge has set aside the pleadings in ASIC’s case accusing a Worrells liquidator of aiding and abetting the illegal phoenix activity of collapsed Queensland property investment advisor Members Alliance Group, saying he is entitled to a “coherent pleading”.