Trial in war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation case over articles accusing him of war crimes has been adjourned until November in light of the current COVID-19 lockdown in Sydney, which a judge noted could be extended beyond the month of August.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has won its case against IOOF unit RI Advice, with a judge finding the financial services firm failed to ensure its advisers acted in the best interests of clients and did not give inappropriate advice.
A judge and former Channel 7 journalist has disqualified herself from hearing a case against a bankrupt businessman after finding a “reasonable observer” might think she personally believed allegations levelled against him in a Today Tonight program.
Westpac has told the Federal Court it has “grave concerns” about Forum Group founder Bill Papas’ evidence of his assets, contained in affidavits lodged on Thursday after weeks of non-compliance with a judge’s orders.
An appeals court has found law firm Squire Patton Boggs breached its contractual obligations but was not grossly negligent after it was dragged into a financial dispute over the $12.5 million refurbishment of a Western Australian gold processing plant.
A judge has found artificial intelligence can be named as the inventor on a patent application, setting aside an IP Australia finding that allowing a machine to be considered an inventor would render the Patents Act incapable of “sensible operation”.
Qantas has lost a case brought by the Transport Workers Union that challenged the airline’s decision to axe 2,000 staff and replace them with “insecure” labour hire workers, with a judge finding Qantas boss Andrew David outsourced ground operations partly to prevent employees engaging in industrial action.
Former Attorney-General Christian Porter has succeeded in scrubbing from the court record the ABC’s full defence in his now-settled defamation suit against the broadcaster, over the protests of media outlets, with a judge finding the principle of open justice was “not absolute”.
The federal government has been hit with a lawsuit alleging it failed to take into account the impact on climate change when it awarded an Empire Energy subsidiary a $21 million grant for gas exploration in the Northern Territory, two months after a landmark ruling found the government owes a duty of care to protect children from the risks of climate change.
A former rugby league journalist with Channel 7 has lost his defamation case over media reports, which alleged he threatened to rip the head off a young regional cadet, because the defamatory imputations were substantially true, judge has ruled.