Banton Group

Congratulations once again to Elliott Smith and Melissa Morgan (nee Crowley) who were named finalist in this year’s Lawyer’s Weekly Partner of the Year Awards in the Class Action Division. What an incredible night celebrating all the finalist’s achievements and hard work! #lawyersweekly #finalists #partneroftheyear #classaction #partners #legal #lawfirm #bantongroup Elliott Smith Melissa Morgan (nee Crowley)

Banton Group expanding their team and is on the lookout for hardworking and ambitious lawyers with a passion for complex litigation, class action and dispute resolution matters! Amanda Banton Elliott Smith Melissa Morgan (nee Crowley) #recruiting #associate #juniorlawyers #hiring #joinourteam #bantongroup

📢 Applications for Banton Group’s Summer Clerkship Program are now open! 📢 Are you a budding legal talent eager to dive into the dynamic world of litigation? Banton Group’s Summer Clerkship Program offers you the chance to immerse yourself in a market leading practice, gaining invaluable firsthand experience in some of Australia’s largest disputes under the supervision of some of Sydney’s best litigators. To seize this opportunity, send us your CV, academic transcript, and cover letter to info@bantongroup.com. More information on Banton Group’s Summer Clerkship Program can be accessed on the Work With Us page of our website. #clerk #clerkships #lawstudents #lawschool #graduatejobs #graduateopportunities #law #career #lawyer #sydney #litigation #classaction #bantongroup

The Supreme Court of Victoria issued ‘Guidelines for Litigants: Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence in Litigation’ on 6 May 2024. These guidelines are designed to assist both legal practitioners and litigants with the use of generative AI tools that will quickly become commonplace in legal settings.    Key principles for parties and practitioners include:   Understanding how AI tools work, and their limitations. Acknowledging that privacy and confidentiality of information and data is not guaranteed.   Reliance on AI programs by one party must not indirectly mislead another participant in the litigation process (including the Court) as to the nature of the work undertaken or its content produced by a program.   Any use of AI must be subject to the obligations of legal practitioners, including the obligation of candour to the Court and to obligations to represent that documents prepared and submissions made have a proper basis.   Self-represented litigants (and witnesses) should include statements about any AI tools used to prepare documents.    The Court has also published guidance as to the application of these principles. Some key takeaways are that the Court has already employed with “good effect” the use of AI to search and identify relevant matters in a closed category of information. It encourages practitioners to consider the use of tools such as these to improve productivity and efficiency but cautions against the use of freely available public programs like ChatGPT and Google Gemini. To that end, legally focused AI tools will be more useful and reliable to parties and practitioners involved in litigation than general-purpose tools.    The Court urges practitioners to consider the use AI tools consistent with the expectation that use of common technologies is a core skill for lawyers (see Practice Note SC Gn 5). Additionally, the guidelines offer insights into checking AI-generated text to ensure it is not out of date, incomplete, inaccurate, inapplicable to the jurisdiction, or biased.   Ultimately, “generative AI does not relieve the responsible legal practitioner of the need to exercise judgment and professional skill in reviewing the final product to be provided to the court”.   https://lnkd.in/gPCqV9FD Amanda Banton Elliott Smith Melissa Morgan (nee Crowley) Sophie Richardson #ai #generativeai #aitools #legal #law #bantongroup

Banton Group is expanding their team in 2024 and is on the lookout for hardworking and ambitious senior lawyers with a passion for complex litigation, class action and dispute resolution matters. Know anyone who might be interested? Amanda Banton Elliott Smith Melissa Morgan (nee Crowley) #hiring #seniorlawyers #litigation #classaction #disputeresolution #recruiting #bantongroup

Banton Group is pleased to announce that Elliott Smith, and Melissa Morgan (nee Crowley) have been named as finalists in this year’s Lawyers Weekly Partner of the Year Awards in the Class Action Division.    This is a wonderful achievement in what has been another great year for Banton Group. Congratulations to all the finalists! #lawyersweekly #finalists #partneroftheyear #classaction #partners #legal #lawfirm #bantongroup Amanda Banton Elliott Smith Melissa Morgan (nee Crowley)

We are delighted to announce that Paul Smith has been promoted to Of Counsel. Paul recently joined the firm on his return to Australia. Paul specialises in class actions, commercial litigation and insolvency disputes. In his short time to date with Banton Group he has contributed to achieving excellent results for our clients across several cases. Congratulations to Paul – we are thrilled to have him as part of our innovative and results-driven team! Amanda Banton Elliott Smith Ross Garland Melissa Morgan (nee Crowley) #promotion #newposition #congratulations #ofcounsel #lawfirm #legal #bantongroup

We are delighted to announce that Banton Group has been ranked as a leading firm in the 2024 Legal 500 Asia Pacific Guide in the following categories –   - Dispute Resolution: Class Actions (tier 3) - Dispute Resolution: Litigation (tier 5) - Restructuring and Insolvency (tier 5)   We give special commendation to Managing Partner, Amanda Banton who has been acknowledged as a Leading Individual in the category of Dispute Resolution: Class Actions.   Last year was a big one for Banton Group and we are grateful for the exceptional work our team has produced in the past 12 months. We look forward to taking on 2024 with our hardworking and dedicated team. Thank you The Legal 500 (Legalease) 500 for the recognition. Amanda Banton Elliott Smith Ross Garland Melissa Morgan (nee Crowley) #legal500 #legal500asiapacific #legalawards #classactions #disputeresolution #restructuring #insolvency #legal #law #bantongroup

Last week, Banton Group, as the solicitors for the Plaintiffs in the Sydney Light Rail class action, prosecuted a groundbreaking claim, which, if successful, would require the Defendant in those proceedings, Transport for NSW, to pay the for the Plaintiffs’ costs of obtaining litigation funding for the proceedings.   The funding commission claim follows the decision handed down by Justice Cavanagh on 19 July 2023, which found that Transport for NSW’s failure to properly plan and procure the Sydney Light Rail Project (Project) had caused nuisance to the two representative plaintiff businesses, Hunt Leather and Ancio Investments (trading as Khing Thai).   In order to bring the proceedings, the Plaintiffs (as well as other Group Members) entered into funding agreements with litigation funder, International Litigation Partners. Those funding agreements provided that the funder would pay all costs of the proceedings (including taking on all adverse costs risks) and, in exchange, the Plaintiffs agreed that, if they were successful, they would reimburse those costs, plus pay a percentage of their damages to the funder as a ‘funding commission’.   At the hearing on 13 and 14 December 2023, we advanced three key arguments in support of plaintiffs’ claim for the funding commission to be included as a head of damage in the proceedings:   First, compensation in tort law (including the law of nuisance) is intended to put the injured party in the same position as the party would have been, had the tort not been committed. In this case, we argued that this could only be achieved if the Defendant paid the funding commission because otherwise, the Plaintiffs would only receive the damages necessary to put them back into their previous position minus the funding commission.   Second, to be recoverable in tort, damages must be a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the tort. Here, we argued that a funded class action (with the associated funding costs) was also a foreseeable consequence of Transport for NSW’s conduct because (a) Transport for NSW did in fact foresee nuisance claims and a class action arising from the Project as they were recorded as risks in its risk registers for the Project, (b) it is obvious that any nuisance claim or class action brought in relation to the Project would be costly to prosecute and beyond what individual Group Members in the proceedings could afford.   Third, we argued that the rate of funding commission charged by the litigation funder in the proceedings is reasonable, given the significant cost and risks that were involved in bringing a nuisance claim against a government authority in relation to a major piece of public infrastructure.  A decision on the funding commission claim is expected to be handed down in February or March 2024. Amanda Banton Elliott Smith Ross Garland Melissa Morgan (nee Crowley) #classaction #sydneylightrail #legal #law #bantongroup

Banton Group is expanding their growing team in 2024 and is on the lookout for hardworking and ambitious lawyers with a passion for complex litigation, class action and dispute resolution matters! Amanda Banton Elliott Smith Ross Garland Melissa Morgan (nee Crowley)