The Federal Court must guard against “exceptions by accretion” when weighing Westpac’s application to prevent the public from accessing documents filed in a lawsuit by the bank’s former head of strategy, which has resolved in a confidential settlement, a judge heard Wednesday.
The Environmental Defenders Office has replaced its chair and appointed a former judge to its board as it undergoes a review of its processes in the wake of an unsuccessful case against Santos over the oil and gas company’s $5.6 billion Barossa pipeline.
A judge of the District Court in NSW has lodged a formal complaint against the state’s Director of Public Prosecutions after the DPP griped to the court’s top judge about her conduct while presiding over three criminal cases.
A Perth-based partner with Clifford Chance has been shown the door following an investigation into complaints by colleagues of “serious misconduct”.
Generic drug maker Mayne Pharma has resolved a shareholder class action centred on disclosures connected to price-fixing claims by US regulators.
Senior South Australian barristers have called on the state’s top judge to retract public statements reportedly made in support of moves by the Attorney-General to abolish the King’s Counsel title, but the judge has told the indignant members of the Bar his comments were taken out of context.
Despite arguing for suppression as a means only to successful mediation, Westpac now wants a settled employment case brought by an executive kept under lock and key. And in a worrying sign the Federal Court may have lost sight of the importance of open justice, a judge has indicated she would entertain an order that the suit never see the light of day.
Previously noting the rate was “well outside the median range”, a judge has made an order granting the second highest contingency fee to a law firm running a shareholder class action against vehicle company FleetPartners Group, saying he was satisfied the group costs order was appropriate and necessary.
A senior barrister who was ordered to provide itemised bills to explain four invoices totalling $800,000 has avoided a contempt of court finding, with a judge saying he was not satisfied the silk failed to comply with the orders and that if the extent of the itemisation were inadequate this was not the result of “disobedience”.
The Tasmanian government has agreed to settle a class action on behalf of former child detainees of the state’s Ashley Youth Detention Centre alleging decades of systemic negligence by management.