The Virgin Australia administration continues to boost billables at the top end of town, with a short list of “well-funded” buyers revealed on Monday and an intense four weeks ahead as the bidders and their law firms scramble to make binding offers by the mid-June deadline.
A judge has found that the High Court’s landmark ruling last year blocking common fund orders in the early stages of a class action also barred them from being made at the conclusion of a proceeding, departing from several recent rulings on common fund orders.
After almost five years before the courts, a judge has approved an approximately $120 million settlement of five class actions against Volkswagen over the diesel emissions scandal, including a “very substantial” $43 million in fees and disbursements for one of the plaintiffs firms.
The settlement of two shareholder class actions against sandalwood producer Quintis has been delayed after the company’s eleventh-hour revelation that it may have an extra $40 million in insurance.
An Ashurst partner is at risk of being evicted from his Point Piper home after allegedly refusing to pay a $150,000 special levy.
A prominent silk deliberately misled a cost consultant retained to provide an opinion on the barrister’s fees to a court overseeing a class action over the collapse of Banksia Securities, then joked about it with lawyer and litigation funder Mark Elliott, a judge has been told.
A court has substantially dismissed an application for further discovery by three companies facing a lawsuit by chemical and energy giant Hanwha Solutions for patent infringement of its solar cell technology.
A property developer facing a class action over a residential complex in Canberra has asked a court to reopen a hearing that resulted in a finding that it misled the lead applicant about the GST payable on her unit and awarded her $23,400 in compensation.
A court has dismissed a claim by the Australian Government for $325 million against pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb allegedly owed for excess subsidies it paid for blood-thinner Plavix as a result of an interlocutory injunction blocking a generic version of the blockbuster drug.
The funder behind the Banksia Securities class action has failed in a bid to have an outstanding case over legal fees and its commission sent to mediation, with a judge saying the issues for trial involve allegations against lawyers of serious misconduct not appropriate for closed-door negotiations.