Events

Brittany Higgins has been questioned over messages she sent to a friend shortly after she was allegedly raped at Parliament House that are said to contradict her account, with the former Liberal staffer saying she “wasn’t ready” to disclose the truth.

The date has been set for a hearing in the second case to test the argument that judges lack power to make a common fund order when a class action settles, and the litigation funder challenging the argument can expect a sympathetic ear.

Former Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming has brought defamation proceedings against the leader of the state's Liberal party, John Pesutto.

The applicant in a nine-year-old class action over the government's 2011 live exports ban has urged the Commonwealth to pay up to $900 million to settle the case, after earlier settlement efforts flopped.

Former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins told a court Friday she tried to "reclaim" the dress she wore on the night of her alleged raped by later wearing it to a birthday function for her then boss, Senator Linda Reynolds.

The judge overseeing alleged rapist Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten and presenter Lisa Wilkinson has deferred a decision about whether accuser Brittany Higgins can be questioned over her speech outside the ACT courthouse after a mistrial was declared in Lehrmann’s criminal case.

In a victory for the ATO, a judge has found that payments made by Schweppes to PepsiCo as part of a bottling and distribution agreement, which did not expressly provide for payment of a royalty for use of the company's IP, were royalties and should be taxed accordingly.

Power tool maker Techtronic has been ordered to pay a record $15 million penalty after admitting it told resellers to set a minimum price for Milwaukee branded products, for which it is a wholesale supplier.

A judge has refused to disqualify himself from a case by the Victorian legal watchdog against the former directors of two law firms, saying errors by him at directions hearings in the case did not equate to bias.

Facing cross-examination for the first time in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case, former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins has denied she adapted her evidence to suit new information and dismissed the “insulting” proposition that she fabricated the alleged rape by Lehrmann out of fear she would lose her job.