Melbourne underworld figure Mick Gatto was not defamed by an online ABC article reporting on witness evidence given in court alleging he helped arrange the murder of Victor Pierce and threatened to kill barrister Nicola Gobbo, a judge has ruled.
Historical legislation by the Morrison government requiring Google and Facebook to pay for news on their platforms has passed parliament after amendments were won by the digital giants.
Horizon Oil has won its bid to shield Herbert Smith Freehills documents advising the company did not breach foreign bribery laws from being revealed in a defamation lawsuit brought against Fairfax Media by a Papua New Guinea government Minister.
Social media giant Facebook has announced it will soon reverse its ban on news pages in Australia after discussions with the Morrison government resulted in changes to the mandatory arbitration requirements found in the proposed Australian media bargaining code.
Former Labor MP Melissa Parke has failed in her bid to strike down the honest opinion defence of Herald Sun executive Dr Colin Rubenstein in her lawsuit alleging the director defamed her in an email and article relating to her 2019 pre-selection speech.
Law firm Atanaskovic Hartnell has failed to postpone its appeal of a ruling over unpaid legal fees until after its senior counsel — who is stuck in London — can get a COVID-19 vaccine and return to Australia.
A barrister for a Sydney criminal lawyer who wears hearing aids and is suing News Corp’s Nationwide News over allegedly defamatory Daily Telegraph articles referring to his profound deafness has likened the stories to accusing bespectacled lawyers of being blind.
Nine-owned Fairfax will have to pay out over $2 million in legal fees after being hit with indemnity costs on top of a $280,000 judgment in its defamation spat with venture capitalist Dr Elaine Stead for its “Micawber-like” approach to the case.
Fairfax has hit back at claims in a lawsuit that the publisher defamed a barrister in an article alleging he helped Texas billionaire Bob Brockman defraud the United States of US$2 billion in taxes, denying the article defamed the lawyer and saying the report was an honest summary of publically available information.
Venture capitalist Dr Elaine Stead is seeking indemnity costs after being awarded $280,000 in her defamation case against Nine-owned Fairfax, which she accuses of rejecting several settlement offers with “bugger off letters” and engaging in a “petulant campaign” of media coverage post-judgment.