Judgment

The daughter of a former ATO boss has been sentenced to eight years imprisonment over her role in an $105 million tax fraud involving payroll services company Plutus Payroll, with a judge finding she showed “no contrition” for her conduct.

In what a judge has dubbed a “tale of two women, two teenage dreams and one name”, US pop star Katy Perry has lost her bid to cancel the “Katie Perry” trade mark owned by an Australian designer and has been barred her from using her stage name to market clothing merchandise. 

A lawyer's role in litigation is not to draw conclusions on the existence of facts or the outcome of a case, an appeals court has ruled in throwing out a personal costs order against a solicitor for filing a defence in a case his client ultimately lost.

A consortium of parmigiano reggiano producers has lost its opposition to registration of a parmesan trade mark in Australia by an international group dedicated to protecting common names from being monopolised.

A judge has ruled Scenic Tours can cross-examine class action members without seeking approval from referees, who will oversee a process for assessing amounts owed to them, after the tour operator mostly lost its appeal of a judgment that put it on the hook for damages to disappointed cruise goers.

A judge has found that lead plaintiffs in a class action by commercial fishing operations against Gladstone Ports can bring new claims out of time, saying it would be “grossly inconsistent” if group members had broader limitation relief than representative parties.

Cruise operator Scenic Tours is stuck with a $10 million damages bill but has avoided paying for disappointed traveller’s flights, after an appeals court mostly rejected its appeal of an award to travellers who were promised a “once in a lifetime cruise along the grand waterways of Europe” but were instead forced to take the bus.

Senior restructuring and insolvency lawyers have welcomed a novel ruling that found a liquidator was entitled to claim his costs ahead of the preferred claims of company employees, but questions remain about the "potentially difficult" interaction between two conflicting priority regimes.

A judge won't stay a reference process which US company Fluor claims is infected with bias, in a "monumental" dispute with energy giant Santos that has already generated a $57.5 million legal bill for the engineering firm.

A judge has approved a $50.45 million settlement in a class action by family members and deceased estates of the Northern Territory Stolen Generations. He has also approved a 13 per cent funding commission by way of a common fund order, saying debates about CFOs had become “lost in the label”.