Judges

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is facing claims by the lead applicants in two class actions against failed retail giant Dick Smith alleging its poor accounting practices contributed to the retailer's collapse.

A proposed 90-day standstill that gives law firms time to file competing class actions without rushing to court has garnered support from multiple Federal Court judges, and could be adopted as part of new protocols being considered, one judge said Friday.

Viva Energy has been convicted and fined $100,000 for polluting Sydney Harbour after a marine fuel oil spill from a corroded pipe at the company's Gore Bay terminal on New Year's Eve three years ago.

A Sydney community group has lost a last-minute challenge to the demolition of Allianz Stadium, with the Court of Appeal throwing the case out in a unanimous decision.

The founder of JustKapital is considering adding Corrs Chambers Westgarth to a lawsuit he brought seeking nearly $1 million allegedly owed as part of a deal he made to step down as managing director from the litigation funder.

A top executive at railway technology company Wavetrain has been referred to the Commonwealth Attorney General for possible criminal proceedings after its solicitors at Mills Oakley worked with opposing counsel to uncover false evidence he provided in a consumer case centered on the company's railway patents.

The trial in the ACCC's case against hospital group Ramsay Health Care has doubled in length after the regulator made a late bid to enter as evidence a file note based on a sound recording of a meeting in which a Ramsay unit's CEO allegedly made anti-competitive threats.

The courts should be given express statutory power to resolve competing class actions that establishes the factors to consider when picking a winning case, a leading class action judge has said.

Competing class actions that drag out proceedings can have devastating effects on group members, and whether funded class actions provide genuine access to justice, not just "access to the court's processes", was a legitimate question, the head of the Australian Law Reform Commission said Wednesday.

Piper Alderman and a senior female partner who has accused the law firm's leaders of sex discrimination have been unable to settle their dispute out of the glare of the courtroom.