Judgment

The High Court has handed a win to a class action on behalf of Queensland ratepayers who were wrongly charged levies over a period of six years, rejecting the local council’s argument that the levies were put to good use.

The theatre company behind a 2014 production of the Rocky Horror picture show has lost its bid to throw out actor Christie Whelan's claims that she was victimised after allegedly suffering sexual harassment by fellow actor Craig McLachlan. 

The minority shareholder in Sydney restaurant Machiavelli Ristorante Italiano has lost his bid to review the company books in anticipation of bringing a second winding up application, after the relationship between the restaurant's co-owners broke down.

Mehreen Faruqi can include evidence of senator Pauline Hanson’s allegedly "hateful" comments on race and ethnicity in a trial over the One Nation leader’s tweet saying the deputy Greens leader should “piss off back to Pakistan".

PwC spin-off Scyne Advisory has lost its bid to temporarily bar a former partner from working at Downer EDI after a judge found the firm had reasonable prospects of success in its case but had inexplicably delayed bringing the proceedings.

The Full Federal Court has found a native title tribunal failed to consider climate change when making a finding in relation to four new petroleum production leases for Santos' Narrabri gas project in New South Wales.

Qantas has been hit with a $250,000 fine for standing down a health and safety representative who directed co-workers to cease unsafe work during COVID-19, with a judge saying the airline's conduct was "shameful" and designed to "advance its own commercial interests".

The leader of an abusive New Age cult operating out of northern NSW has lost her defamation case against a former follower who wrote a tell-all book about her experiences, after a judge found she was a “dishonest and unreliable” witness.

An appeals court has ordered a third trial in a long-running copyright battle between Microsoft and a Melbourne computer retailer, saying the trial judge's findings were "greatly diminished" by her three-year-long delay in delivering judgment.

The mother of murder victim Shandee Blackburn has lost her bid to have a judge decide ahead of trial whether acquitted suspect John Peros suffered serious harm from Facebook posts that allegedly accused him of being a murderer.