Judges

AUSTRAC wants Star to pay a $400 million penalty for breaching anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws, while the company claims a penalty of more than $100 million would tip it into liquidation. 

The owners corporation suing Parkview Construction over alleged combustible cladding at the Australia Towers in Sydney Olympic Park is “hopeful” of a settlement being reached, a court has heard on the eve of trial.

A judge has thrown out a notice to produce issued by an Australian company being targeted by UK genomic sequencing company Oxford Nanopore Technologies, calling its bid for board minutes and other documents a “fishing expedition”.

Mortgage broker Lendi Group and insurer ALI Group want to declass a junk insurance class action, telling a judge that even in a successful scenario, the more than 13,000 group members will be left to share only $2.5 million. 

The judge overseeing two competing class actions against Google has issued a warning to law firms that agree to team up and work on a class action together, saying that in other markets such arrangements might be viewed as “something akin to a cartel”.

A class action by investors in a Melbourne apartment develpment has resolved for $2.6 million, but the law firm bringing the case will take a haircut on its fees after group members ignored calls to contribute to the costs.

A bid by the parties for the court to determine legal costs in a successful case over the $55 million sale of a Queensland shopping centre has left a judge scratching his head.

Mortgage broker Lendi Group and insurer ALI Group want a proceeding on behalf of tens of thousands of Aussie Home Loans customers to be stripped of class action status.

Penalty proceedings in ASIC's case against coal producer TerraCom have been put on ice until the regulator’s suit against the company’s directors goes to trial. 

A charitable trust of the late artist Martin Sharp, known for designing album cover art for Eric Clapton, can sell his $33 million home to the neighbouring Cranbrook, despite having expressed "animus" towards the prestigious private school, a judge has said.