A subsidiary of hospitality giant Mantle Group has failed to set aside a Fair Work Commission decision finding it systematically underpaid employees and gave “knowingly false” evidence, with an appeals court refusing to find the decision gave rise to the appearance of bias.
A judge has retroactively validated the appointment of BDO as auditor for litigation funder Omni Bridgeway after EY resigned due to a class action conflict, saying the failure to seek shareholder approval for the appointment was not the result of a blatant disregard for its obligations.
A class action against Transport for NSW over the alleged fraudulent acquisition of land to construct the $16 billion Westconnex tunnel in Sydney has been put on ice until the funder and the lead plaintiff can resolve a potential dispute.
Macquarie Bank has agreed to pay a $10 million fine in proceedings brought ASIC after the bank admitted that it failed to monitor third-party withdrawals, resulting in a financial adviser’s theft of $2.9 million.
A judge has rejected claims by basketball coach Shane Heal that the Sydney Flames used bullying complaints from several players as a ‘smoke screen’ to hide unlawful reasons for suspending him last year.
A judge has signed off on a $16 million settlement in a class action against Dixon Advisory, but the funder of a competing case that was stayed after losing a beauty parade has earned a fragment of the $1 million it sought from the resolution sum.
A prominent Perth lawyer acting for ex-defence minister Linda Reynolds in defamation cases against former staffer Brittany Higgins and her partner has been fined and reprimanded for two counts of professional misconduct in a separate matter.
The NSW Supreme Court has issued a practice note on forms of address that fails to invite parties to inform the court of their preferred pronouns, unlike two other state courts, one of which came under fire from ‘Harry Potter’ author JK Rowling last year.
Judges experience extreme levels of stress and secondary trauma, exacerbated by public comment that is often ignorant of what the job entails. The transparent approach taken by the judge presiding over the Bruce Lehrmann case may help pave the way to alleviating some of that stress, but more needs to be done, experts say.
The NSW Court of Appeal has said it has no power to exclude group members who do not sign up to a class action from participating in a settlement, upholding a controversial decision that the Full Federal Court said was “plainly wrong”.