Energy generator Stanwell has filed a lawsuit seeking to shut down the funding for a class action brought on behalf of 50,000 customers accusing it of gaming Queenland’s energy pricing system, alleging funder LCM lacked the required licence to back the case and did not register the class action as a managed investment scheme.
A dozen group members can opt out of Maurice Blackburn’s Roundup class action against Monsanto and switch to a competing class action being run by Sydney-based LHD Lawyers that was closed and temporarily stayed in May last year.
The Full Federal Court has upheld US biotech company Sequenom’s patent for a noninvasive prenatal genetic test, rejecting rival Ariosa Diagnostic’s argument that the patent merely described a way to extract incorporeal genetic information.
National Australia Bank has urged a court to impose a $15 million penalty for its five-year failure to adequately disclose its adviser fees, and has argued ASIC’s push for a steeper penalty goes too far.
National Australia Bank has admitted in court it broke the law by charging fees it was not entitled to collect, but the bank and the corporate regulator are $25 million apart on what is an appropriate penalty.
Switzerland-based Biogen has sued generic drug maker MSN Laboratories for allegedly threatening to infringe the patent for its top-selling oral MS drug Tecfidera.
A judge has extended an injunction barring a former manager of non-bank lender Liberty Financial from working for a unit of Wingate Group until after trial in a case over a restraint clause in the executive’s contract.
A Victoria Supreme Court judge weighing for the first time an application by a law firm for a percentage cut of recoveries in class actions has been told to reject the bid because group members would fare better under the firm’s current no win, no fee funding arrangement.
Global resources giant BHP Group has lost an appeal in its fight to exclude foreign investors from a shareholder class action over the 2015 Fundao dam disaster, after arguing the class action regime applies only to those in Australia.
Drawn in by economic incentives, more defence law firms are getting in on the class actions action, but playing both sides may have its drawbacks.