AMP’s advice executive Jack Regan, the witness who aired the firm’s fees-for-no-service dirty laundry at the Royal Commission, has retired, a day before five law firms compete to lead a class action over the scandal.
Accounting giant Ernst & Young, which is accused in a class action of misleading and deceptive conduct in signing off on the 2015 and 2016 financial reports of sandalwood producer Quintis, has named the company’s previous auditor as partly to blame in any finding of liability.
Shareholder cases made up half of all class actions filed in the past two years, and are to blame for an “unprecedented spike” in class actions, according to a new report by a leading defence law firm.
Shareholders who registered for a class action against mining company MacMahon Holdings will get a $2.4 million cut of a proposed $6.7 million settlement, according to a notice sent to group members ahead of next week’s settlement approval hearing.
The two funders paying for a shareholder class action against facility services company Spotless Group want 25 percent of any net settlement or judgment in the case, a rate that mirrors the commission approved in a common fund order now at the centre of a constitutional challenge.
A judge has taken a hatchet to Quinn Emanuel’s fees and the funder’s cut in a $12 million settlement of a class action against Bank of Queensland, a settlement which he previously described as one of the “worst” he’d ever seen.
Former Aussie Home Loan boss Stephen Porges has secured a temporary stay of a ruling that found he owed Adcock Private Equity more than $1 million for duping the firm into buying his worthless shares in a digital commerce startup.
A leading law firm has called for a closer look at the increasing involvement of short sellers in shareholder class actions, saying any review that flows from the current inquiry should examine whether short sellers should be allowed to join the legal proceedings.
The court’s authority to shut down competing class actions is no longer in doubt after Tuesday’s Full Federal Court judgment in the case against GetSwift, and while there is no “silver bullet” when it comes to how judges must deal with multiple proceedings, there are key factors to weigh, the appeals court said. Here, experts provide the big takeaways from the landmark ruling.
Maurice Blackburn and Phi Finney McDonald have sidestepped a competing class action battle in the high-stakes litigation against Commonwealth Bank of Australia over alleged breaches of money laundering laws, with the firms proposing to jointly lead a consolidated class action against the bank.