Judges

A judge has signed off on a $59 million settlement in a class action accusing five banks of foreign exchange rate-rigging, while bemoaning the failure of successive attorneys-general to advance reforms clarifying the court’s power to make class closure orders.

The judge overseeing three court proceedings against Optus over a 2022 data breach has questioned why it took the privacy regulator three years to file its case.

Developer CBS Commercial has asked a court to summarily dismiss a defects suit over a luxury lakeside development in the leafy Canberra suburb of Kingston, arguing the case has no reasonable prospects of success.

A former ANZ trader that sued the bank five years ago for allegedly sacking him for complaining about the bank's attempted manipulation of the bank bill swap rate wants the trial date pushed out after receiving thousands of documents from the bank.

Mastercard says legal professional privilege remained over a document after a junior lawyer "inadvertently" sent it to the ACCC in 2020 while the credit card giant was trying to dissuade the regulator from continuing an investigation into alleged anti-competitive conduct.

A junior Ashurst lawyer's failure to register a drug wholesaler's $51 million security interest over a group of Infinity pharmacies was inadvertent, a judge has found in granting a bid to extend the deadline for registration.

A judge has dismissed a bid by a group of labour hire companies to disqualify former Labor MP now Fair Work Commission deputy president Terri Butler from same job, same pay cases for apprehended bias.

The corporate regulator should not be immune from the risk of special costs for actions doomed to fail, says a judge who flayed ASIC last month for bringing a case against TerraCom directors it should have known was a dud.

The Port Authority of NSW has won its claim for public interest immunity over six cabinet documents in a suit by a defunct sand importer over a lease agreement for a mulit-user facility at Glebe Island, with a judge finding they had little forensic value.

GFG unit Whyalla Ports has won its bid to rub out some expert evidence put forward by OneSteel about the costs of dismantling and removing assets from the site in their dispute over control of the assets at the South Australian port.