A Federal Circuit Court judge has hit back at accusations he conducted “the grossest parody of a court hearing” when he unlawfully imprisoned a Queensland man for contempt of court, telling a trial “he is a human being [who] made a mistake”.
More than 18 months after a split emerged among the courts, the Full Federal Court will weigh in on whether judges have power to shut out unregistered group members from a class action. But given the breadth of the question for the appeals court, the issue is unlikely to be resolved there.
A judge has said if he sides with a former ANZ trader in a privilege dispute with the bank over file notes from 2014 meetings over ASIC’s bank bill swap rate investigations it would create a “whole world of pain” for solicitors claiming privilege over their notes in other cases.
A judge has ruled he will not consider a separate question on whether Acciona is barred from setting off any damages payable to Lendlease in a lawsuit over the $160 million sale of its engineering business.
A Melbourne solicitor has been banned from legal practice until 2035 after a tribunal found him guilty of eight charges of professional misconduct and unsatisfactory professional conduct for allegedly misleading a court about his entitlement to practice.
An alternative therapies clinic in Victoria has been hit with $3 million in penalties for allegedly promoting “pseudo-scientific” treatments to vulnerable people with chronic illnesses in posts on social media and its website.
The Full Court is set to examine whether the Federal Court has the power to make class closure orders prior to mediation, weighing on one of the biggest unanswered questions vexing the class action regime.
A judge has allowed two a2 Milk trade marks to proceed to registration despite “legitimate uncertainty” created by IP Australia in a long-running intellectual property spat with competitor Lion Dairy & Drinks.
The ACCC has been accused of running a “experimental test case” that tries to fit the shares market within the scope of the Competition and Consumer Act with its criminal cartel case against Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and several prominent banking executives over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement.
Collapsed NSW training company Australian Institute of Professional Education has been slugged with a $153 million penalty, the highest ever fine in a consumer law case, after the Federal Court found the school targeted vulnerable students through an “unconscionable” enrolment system.