The law firm behind a long-running class action against Pitcher Partners over its auditing of Slater and Gordon is seeking court approval to drop the case, leaving the funder that bankrolled the proceeding to defend an application for indemnity costs.
Revelations of fraud this week in the Banksia class action have put the ability of judges to scrutinise litigation funding agreements in the spotlight of a parliamentary class action inquiry, with one MP claiming the judiciary was “stretched beyond capacity”.
Lawyer Mark Elliott was the “puppet master” behind the Banksia class action, retaning an old school mate to represent the lead applicant but in reality funding and running the proceedings with barristers Norman O’Bryan SC and Michael Symons to line their pockets at the expense of group members, a court has been told.
AMP has been hit with a cliass action by a group of financial planners over changes to its buyer of last resort policy last year, which cut the number of authoried advisers and retreated from a promise to buy back their businesses at a price based on a set multiple.
The funder and legal team behind a class action over the collapse of Banksia Securities billed for phantom costs in a “fraudulent scheme” to secure almost $20 million from the case, the contradictor investigating the purported misconduct has told a court.
Telstra has filed a lawsuit accusing Singtel Optus of breaching the Australia Consumer Law through ads that claim it is “covering more of Australia than ever before”.
A lawsuit by iSignthis seeking over $27 million in damages from the ASX has been sent back for revision, after a judge found the fintech had failed to causally link how a report by the exchange led to lost contracts with five clients.
Westpac anti-money laundering compliance troubles continue to worsen, with the bank reporting an additional 365,000 incomplete or inaccurate threshold transaction reports to AUSTRAC.
There is an “embarrassing” foreign influence on Australian laws, a plaintiff law firm has told a parliamentary inquiry into class actions, after revealing that Treasurer Josh Frydenberg met with an affiliate of the US Chamber of Commerce in May, shortly before announcing a crackdown on litigation funders.
The law firm that represented elderly victims of Ponzi schemer Bradley Sherwin has told the government’s class action inquiry of its “painful” relationship with the funder involved in the proceedings, which eventually saw the firm bow out of the case because of a conflict of interest.