Former legal representatives of companies in the Mayfair 101 group are considering an application to strike out part of an appeal that alleges their “flagrant incompetence” led to director James Mawhinney copping a 20-year ban on soliciting investor funds.
Avant Insurance has challenged a Federal Court judge’s interpretation of the Insurance Contracts Act in its second attempt to avoid liability for the defence costs of a plastic surgeon named in a class action brought over botched breast augmentations.
Melbourne farmers-turned-developers the Bozzo family have sued a national law firm for allegedly giving bad tax advice on the $3 billion Wyndham Vale development in Melbourne’s west, situated on 482 hectares of land the family purchased in 1994.
Macpherson Kelley is headed for trial next week in a case that alleges the law firm bungled the execution of a 10-year lease agreement with Shell for a service station in Melbourne, giving the energy giant an extra 320 square metres equating to $2.5 million in lost rent for its landlord client.
Compliance and legal specialist Sophie Grace has rejected allegations it was responsible for defunct forex trader Gallop International Group’s collapse after it allegedly loaned $15.4 million in investor funds to the company’s director in Hong Kong.
Last year brought economic growth and success for law firms, but 2021 was not only marked with good news. A slew of law firms were dragged into litigation by disgruntled ex-clients, with some paying out millions of dollars to resolve lawsuits accusing them of giving bad advice.
Dixon Advisory faces a second class action on behalf of investors who claim they suffered significant financial loss when the advice firm and its directors allegedly encouraged the purchase of high risk, high fee securities for their own financial gain.
Law firm Maddocks has been ordered to pay more than $1.4 million in indemnity costs for “throwing good money after bad” in failing to consider a settlement offer in a negligence lawsuit over a client’s botched deal with Woolworths.
Commercial real estate giant CBRE Group has lost its bid to toss proceedings brought by fund manager Trilogy claiming the company negligently valued a Queensland marina at $34.8 million in 2006 and caused millions in losses.
An appeals court has dismissed an appeal in a professional negligence lawsuit by a New South Wales developer against HWL Ebsworth over a due diligence report that led to the purchase of a $25.5 million parcel of government land at risk of flooding.