It has been described as the darkest chapter in Victoria’s legal history, an exemplar of all that is terrible with class actions in Australia. A case of greedy lawyers who found their golden egg in a group of retirees who had lost their life savings, never thinking the chickens might come home to roost. Until now.
Insurers have largely succeeded in challenging COVID-19 business interruption losses claimed by a group of small businesses, in an important second test case that could save the industry billions of dollars.
The NSW Supreme Court has outlined its roadmap back to holding live hearings but has said that those attending court in person will need to have both COVID-19 vaccination doses.
Supermarket giant Woolworths will pay an additional $50 million to current and former salaried team members and has provisionally settled an underpayments class action against it.
The aircraft engineers’ union has filed Federal Court proceedings against Virgin Australia over alleged privacy breaches relating to the airline’s enforcement of its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.
Two shareholders of failed steel giant Arrium have told the High Court that granting their bid to grill former directors of the company would not be an abuse of process because it was in the public interest to “expose” the management of the defunct business.
The applicants in the Queensland floods class action have asked the High Court to overturn a judgment which found dam operator Seqwater was not liable because it was functioning as a public authority when operating two dams during the 2011 floods, arguing the case raises important issues about appeals in ‘mega’ litigation.
Dick Smith’s former CFO will appeal a $43 million judgment in favour of National Australia Bank over his role in the retailer’s collapse.
“Hundreds of lawyers” could overwhelm Microsoft Teams if German cladding manufacturer 3A Composites continues adding cross-claimants in a class action over highly flammable building materials, a court has heard.
Westpac will serve court documents, including a motion for contempt, on Forum founder Bill Papas by text message after securing a Greek mobile number for the absent accused fraudster, as the judge overseeing the bank’s case pulled up Papas’ former lawyer for treating his courtroom like a “suburban golf club”.