A judge has confined the scope of questions lawyers can ask disgraced senior barrister Norman O’Bryan when he takes the stand this week to give evidence for the son of the mastermind behind an alleged fee scam in the Banksia Securities class action.
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.
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.
Over-the-counter derivative issuers AGM Markets, OT Markets and Oxifin Tech have been ordered to pay a total of $75 million in penalties after a ruling that they engaged in unconscionable conduct causing losses of over $30 million to unsophisticated investors seeking what a judge called “financial heroin hits”.
Lawyer Alex Elliott can’t refuse to hand over evidence in the Banksia class action on the grounds of privilege against self incrimination or exposure to penalty because he waived privilege when he produced the documents to lawyers for his late father’s funder, a court has been told.
The Federal Court has upheld Novartis’ appeal of a ruling revoking its patent for an oral form of multiple sclerosis drug Gilenya, after Australian generic drug maker Arrow Pharmaceuticals dropped its opposition to the patent despite prevailing before IP Australia.
Lawyer Alex Elliott, the son of the mastermind behind an alleged fraudulent scheme by certain members of the legal team in the Banksia class action, has resisted handing over evidence in the case against him, invoking the right to silence in the face of possible criminal charges.