The need to properly prepare a large commercial class action is not reason enough to relieve lawyers of COVID-19 restrictions aimed at protecting the health and safety of Victorians, the Federal Court’s chief judge has said in explaining why he denied a bid by the Melbourne-based legal team behind the Crown Resorts class action to have the case declared a priority.
The Morrison government has announced significant reforms to insolvency laws as part of its economic recovery plan that take inspiration from US chapter 11 laws, but Australia’s peak legal body has said the timeframe for the changes and lack of consultation were “very concerning”.
A class action targeting security companies contracted by the Victorian government to guard returning travellers in hotel quarantine has been launched, bringing to three the number of group proceedings filed over the botched program.
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.