Westpac has agreed to pay a whopping $1.3 billion civil penalty to resolve AUSTRAC enforcement action over the bank’s 23 million breaches of money laundering and counter-terrorism laws.
Leading senior barristers and former judges are urging Victoria’s upper house to oppose the Andrews government’s COVID-19 Omnibus bill, saying legislation allowing citizens to make arrests was an overreach.
A judge has awarded $875,000 in damages in a defamation case brought by Nationals MP Dr Anne Webster against a conspiracy theorist for a series of social media posts linking the politician and her husband to a child sex ring.
Sustainable technology company Papyrus Australia has reached a settlement with its former CEO in a defamation case that alleged the omission of his name in the company’s 2018 annual report was akin to calling him a liar.
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu has asked a court to toss a majority of claims in a lawsuit brought by 63-year-old partner Colin Brown over the firm’s alleged discriminatory retirement policy that he claims has cost him almost $4 million.
A mine worker employed at BHP’s Olympic Dam is suing the company after she was sacked for allegedly harassing a co-worker on social media for their apparent failure to self isolate on returning from a trip interstate at the start of the first wave of COVID-19 cases in Australia.
The Andrews government is facing another COVID-19 related class action, this one on behalf of farm operators financially stung by Victorian and South Australian border closures.
Describing as “preposterous” the prospect of running a six-week trial in a class action against Crown Resorts from her kitchen table with three children at home, the Melbourne-based barrister for the lead applicant is again urging the Federal Court to declare the case a priority matter.
Eyewear retailer Oscar Wylee has been fined $3.5 million for its misleading ‘Buy a pair, Give a pair’ promotion, with a judge calling the representations “brazen” and “plainly deceitful”.
A public sector lawyer has failed to persuade the Fair Work Commission that he was eligible for progression pay rises despite his suspension for alleged misconduct that included repeatedly requesting that a colleague accept his friendship request on Facebook.