Judges

A class action waiver in the terms and conditions of tickets purchased by US passengers embarking on the fateful Ruby Princess cruise at the height of the first COVID-19 wave was neither unfair nor onerous, an appeals court has heard.

Comments made about Clive Palmer by Western Australia premier Mark McGowan in press conferences were “heavy with historical and sinister significance”, a court has heard on the first day of trial in the mining billionaire's defamation case. 

Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith told his wife she would lose access to their children if she did not lie to his lawyers and the media about his extramarital affair, a court has heard.

The federal government has settled the claims of three former associates of ex-High Court Justice Dyson Heydon after an independent investigation found they were victims of sexual harassment on the job.

In a victory for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, a judge has found that builder J Hutchinson entered into an anti-competitive agreement with the CFMEU to boycott an independent subcontractor at a construction site in Brisbane.

In a stunning reversal, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecution has dropped all criminal cartel charges against two investment banks and four individuals in relation to a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement, four years after the charges were brought following an allegedly questionable investigation by the ACCC.

An upcoming three-month trial in a class action against agrochemical giant Monsanto has been vacated after the applicant's key expert withdrew from the case.

The law firms and barristers who defended former Dick Smith directors in sprawling litigation over the failure of the electronics retailer earned close to $68 million in fees, a court has heard.

Rio Tinto will face a penalty in proceedings brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission alleging the mining giant misled shareholders about the resources of a Mozambique mining company it acquired for $5.8 billion in 2011 and later offloaded for $70 million.

Australia’s most decorated Afghanistan war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith told a former SAS soldier that when he “blew the brains out” of a young Afghan man it was “the most beautiful thing [he’d] ever seen”, a court has heard.