McMaster opens new front in legal fight

The Supreme Court of Victoria has ordered that imac legal be joined as a co-defendant alongside Holley Nethercote (HN Law) after revelations that HN Law sub-contracted its 2016 report on Dover’s client protection policy to the firm’s Ian McDermott, paying about half of its total fee of around $6,300 in return for a “near final draft (of the client protection policy) to HN Law for review”.

“Dover commissioned the 2016 Holley Nethercote report for the specific purpose of voluntarily providing it to ASIC. Dover was subject to an ASIC investigation that it had requested,” Terry McMaster told ifa.

“Both Holley Nethercote and imac legal knew their report was commissioned for this specific purpose. The Holley Nethercote report was subsequently voluntarily provided to ASIC by Dover as evidence of Dover's compliance with the law.”

Mr McMaster told ifa that the report discussed the client protection policy in detail and in positive terms, and that neither Holley Nethercote nor imac legal identified any of the issues that ASIC later found breached the Corporations Act. Mr McMaster has previously said that he believes he was provided with negligent advice on the client protection policy.

Mr McMaster noted that the $1.5 million cap on liability may not apply to imac legal because “no notice was provided”. Total damages sought are about $15,000,000.