Justice David Hammerschlag of the NSW Supreme Court has a way with words that readily lends itself to dramatic courtroom headlines. The “Hammer,” as he is known, also pulls no punches and is quick with one liners that keep counsel on their toes. Here, Lawyerly looks at some of the recent best moments inside courtroom 7D.
Gaming and entertainment giant Konami has lost a bid to amend its defence in a patent case by rival Aristocrat Technologies on the second day of a damages hearing, with the judge finding the changes were contrary to the interests of justice and would require postponing the trial until late next year.
Crown Resorts has settled its feud with the Australian Taxation Office over a $396 million tax bill stemming from the acquisition of Las Vegas-based Cannery Casino Resorts as part of the company’s failed North American expansion.
AMP, Asteron and Westpac have been singled out by ASIC for having higher than expected decline rates for total and permanent disability life insurance claims, in a new review by the corporate watchdog that also revealed a “concerningly high” 60 per cent rejection rate for some narrowly defined policies.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority will not challenge a Federal Court ruling that dismissed its case against fund manager IOOF as “unpersuasive”, “fundamentally inadequate” and “tenuous in the extreme”.
The a2 Milk Company has come up short again in opposing a competitor’s bid to register a trade mark containing “a2”, with a delegate finding the reputation of its goods does not lie in the descriptive term a2 alone.
Car rental company Australian 4WD Hire will need to take steps to recover deleted, allegedly threatening emails after a court found it had not complied with its discovery obligations in an unconscionable conduct case brought by the consumer regulator.
Commonwealth Bank subsidiary Colonial First State and former director Linda Elkins face a class action alleging the wealth management group breached its superannuation trustee duties by failing to promptly transfer $3.2 billion of default members’ funds to a lower-cost, high-performing MySuper product.
The applicant in a shareholder class action against Iluka Resources can put up security for the company’s legal costs by way of two insurance deeds of indemnity, but a bid to use the deeds to replace the $1.25 million it earlier paid in cash security has failed.
Kmart has defeated claims by a streetwear company that the retail giant infringed the copyright for its cargo pants and shorts designs.