The parties in a ‘sham’ contracting class action brought on behalf of telecommunications workers have both lost bids to recover interlocutory costs, with a judge noting that costs orders against funded litigants should be the exception rather than the rule in Fair Work litigation.
Hytera Communications argued it should be granted a late-stage bid to postpone its copyright trial with Motorola Solutions, in what a judge called “the most complicated adjournment application” he’d ever heard.
The workplace umpire has jurisdiction to hear a case against Qantas and its budget subsidiary Jetstar brought by the union for licenced aircraft maintenance engineers stood down during the coronavirus pandemic, a judge has ruled in a blow to the airline.
Vehicle Management Systems will take another crack at opposing a patent application by rival SARB Management Group for an integrated magnetic parking overstay detector.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has refused to provide sought-after documents to the lead applicants of a joint class action against it until AUSTRAC grants permission, citing concerns over possible criminal breaches if it hands over the material without the agency’s approval.
A hearing on the validity of border closures by Western Australia and Queensland should be pushed off while WA’s expert responds to an urgent request by Victoria’s health authorities to help that state deal with its coronavirus outbreak, the Federal Court has been told.
A judge has appointed special purpose liquidators to investigate the affairs of failed VET provider Phoenix Institute and its directors after the Commonwealth complained of “a difficult working relationship” with the training company’s current liquidators.
A transgender woman has won a preliminary legal fight with the Australia Press Council over claims the organisation discriminated against her in dismissing her complaint about a news article naming her as the accused behind a “terrifying 7/11 axe attack”.
The parents of an Australian national who was killed aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 have successfully appealed a decision blocking them from participating in the settlement of a class action, with an appeals court judge describing as “disturbing” the conduct of their legal team in the group proceeding.
Two law firms that filed competing shareholder class actions against construction giant Boral have asked the court to permanently stay the other’s proceeding, after the judge overseeing the matter said he might wait until the High Court’s ruling on the AMP class action beauty parade before deciding which class action should move forward.