A judge has denied Fairfax’s bid to strike out allegations by a Western Australian businessman that it was the publisher of allegedly defamatory comments that appeared on one of its Facebook pages.
Two law firms that were able to “work cooperatively” to join their cases have been awarded carriage of a shareholder class action against mining firm Downer EDI. The judge overseeing the proceedings also approved a group costs order application that proposed a “reasonable rate” of return to the firms.
A judge has permanently stayed a class action accusing Meta and Google of breaching competition law by banning cryptocurrency ads, finding there was a potential for conflicts between the self-represented applicant, who is also funding the case, and group members.
Opal Tower engineer WSP has succeeded in claiming the costs of a class action from insurers for builder Icon, with a judge finding engineers were not excluded from the policy’s coverage for subcontractors.
In allowing Seven and chairman Kerry Stokes to challenge a ruling granting Fairfax access to 8,600 emails with accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith’s legal team, a judge has said they will suffer prejudice if “personally embarrassing” communications are put into evidence.
A traditional custodian has won her bid to halt seismic blasting for Woodside’s Scarborough gas project off the coast of Western Australia, in a legal challenge similar to one that put Santos’ $4.7 billion Barossa project on ice.
A former top judge appointed to decide the first-ever contest to administer a class action settlement has set out his criteria for making the choice, and has warned that giving the firm running a case a monopoly right to dole out the proceeds could lead to higher costs for group members and poorer settlement outcomes.
A judge has ordered ANZ to pay a $15 million agreed penalty in a case over more than $10 million in cash advance fees charged to the credit card accounts of hundreds of thousands of customers.
Grocon has taken a hit in its $270 million lawsuit against Infrastructure NSW over a stalled $2 billion Central Barangaroo development project, with a judge finding the developer’s CEO waived privilege over legal advice it received on the sight line rights of Lendlease and Crown.
A judge has expressed his preliminary view that cases brought in Queensland cannot be thrown out where the costs of the claims are disproportionate to their importance, allowing a defamation case by entrepreneur Robert McVicker against the ABC to proceed.