Family law solicitor Christopher Bowrey has been appointed to the Federal Circuit Court to replace the late Judge Guy Andrew on the bench in the court’s Townsville, Queensland registry.
Once high-flying barrister Norman O’Bryan might seek to challenge a refusal by the judge overseeing the Banksia class action to revisit his abandoned defence and accept into evidence a document he claims proved he did not secretly hold shares in the funder behind the case.
Former Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson SC, who recently called for an inquiry into Attorney-General Christian Porter’s fitness for office in the face of rape allegations, will represent the ABC against Porter’s defamation claims.
The litigation funding company controlled by the late solicitor Mark Elliott has told a court of its “remorse and regret” for its misconduct in the Banksia Securities class action, a case that has been described as the “darkest chapter in Victoria’s legal history”.
The son of Banksia class action funder Mark Elliott was no Michael Corleone of the Godfather, and was not knowingly complicit in an alleged scheme masterminded by his father to defraud group members and destroy evidence, his lawyer has told a court.
Barrister Norman O’Bryan SC has failed in his last-ditch bid to reopen his defence in the Banksia class action to submit evidence he says shows he did not retain an interest in the litigation funder behind the case.
The judge overseeing the trial alleging fraud on the part of barristers and the funder behind a class action over Banksia Securities will be asked to award at least $32 million to the failed property lender’s 16,000 debenture holders for the serious misconduct alleged against the lawyers.
Attorney-General Christian Porter has filed defamation proceedings in the Federal Court against the ABC and journalist Louise Milligan over an online article he says made false allegations against him.
A judge has slugged the CEO of a Sydney property development company with a $32,500 penalty for underpaying a live-in nanny, but he aimed his wrath at the media for having “wrongly branded” the businessman as someone who engaged in modern slavery.
A judge overseeing a class action against Bayer-owned Monsanto over its allegedly carcinogenic weedkiller, Roundup, has declined to rule on the admissibility of expert evidence in a hearing ahead of trial next year, despite concerns about the independence of the expert witnesses for the class.