A judge has refused to disqualify herself from hearing a complex medical negligence lawsuit after she described an expert conclave as a “car crash”, citing concerns over a psychiatrist giving opinions about liability in a surgical setting.
A judge has shot down an attempt by former Johnson Winter & Slattery clients to secure records of phone calls by their solicitor to corroborate claims the lawyer repeatedly advised them to ignore a settlement offer in a commercial case they later lost.
A Melbourne law firm and barrister will soon face trial over allegations of breach of fiduciary duty brought by a former client who lost a lawsuit over a $24.5 million property joint venture.
The managing partner of a Brisbane-based law firm has failed to shut down a bid for compensation brought in disciplinary proceedings filed by the Legal Services Commissioner, which is seeking damages identical to those sought in a separate negligence case by a client.
While there was no shortage of pain and challenges for law firms as the coronavirus raged across the globe last year, a number of big firms also felt the sting of litigation from disgruntled clients, partners and employees.
Bourke Street cafe Barfly’s has agreed to hand over $646,250 to the court in trust in an ongoing spat over its legal bills with a law firm that negotiated a $2.4 million settlement for the cafe in a negligence case.
HWL Ebsworth has successfully defended a negligence lawsuit over the $25.5 million sale of Crown-owned Sydney land to property developer PPK Group, with a court finding that the developer was actually “better off” because of the transaction.
A $50 million settlement has been reached in a long-running shareholder class action against defunct vocational training company Vocation that also spawned multiple cross-claims against the failed company’s auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers, law firm Johnson Winter & Slattery and individual directors.
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”.
The owner of Melbourne’s Barfly’s, which has been sued by its former law firm for unpaid fees relating to a $2.4 million settlement negotiated for the Flinders Street cafe in negligence proceedings, has raised questions about the nearly $1 million in fees charged by the firm and a barrister that worked on the case.