Australasian Legal Business Online reports that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) reported an operating loss of AU$26.2 million for the last financial year. The ACCC spent AU$26.277m on legal fees – an increase on the two previous years, which returned figures of AU$25.3m and AU$20.9m.

Global law suits

The ACCC noted increases in employee related costs and settlement of litigation costs, as well as the commencement of 26 law suits against global companies including Apple – in which the Californian company was fined AU$2.5m for false advertising – and Google.
Meanwhile, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has dropped its annual legal spend to AU$15.3m for the 2012 financial year, down from AU$25.2m. The regulator launched 134 litigation cases in the 12 months to 30 June and completed 179. It was successful in 92 per cent of cases, up 2 per cent from the year before.

Ashurst boost

The Commonwealth Attorney General’s department also managed a fractional drop in its annual legal expenditure. The unit spent a total of AU$11,819,550 on legal costs in the 2011-2012 financial year, down from AU$11,830,853.
ALB reports that London-headquartered law firm Ashurst – which merged with Sydney’s Blake Dawson -- was the second highest recipient of legal fees from the department, earning AU$572,246 -- more than double its fees from the department compared to the previous year.