Judges

A court has rejected a bid to apportion costs by Downer after it found ICC arbitration proceedings the company brought against Squadron were invalidly commenced, saying the engineering company had lost on the core issue in dispute.

The reluctance of Pacific Werribee Shopping Centre co-owner Wadren to withdraw a non-compliant expert report in a $356 million defects case against the collapsed Probuild has raised the hackles of the presiding judge.

A court has granted the corporate regulator leave to proceed with a lawsuit against collapsed advisory firm MWL Financial for advising clients to invest $114 million in their super into Keystone’s failed Shield Master Fund. 

A law firm bringing a class action alleging Harvey Norman sold worthless warranties is seeking a 30 per cent group costs order, arguing times have changed and that the court should only consider GCOs awarded in the past year. 

In finding Star Entertainment's former group general counsel liable for breaches of duty, the judge overseeing ASIC's case has questioned the chief lawyer's insistence that she "rarely gave legal advice" and that her roles with the company should be delineated.

An upcoming trial in a case over a Victorian Liberal Party-linked company's decision to give former party leader John Pesutto a $1.5 million loan to help him avoid bankruptcy has been vacated.

A Sydney lawyer has successfully defended a case alleging he should have advised an X-ray business and its director that their defences in proceedings against medical device maker Philips were hopeless.

Delivering his findings on ASIC’s action against Star Entertainment executives on Thursday, Federal Court Justice Michael Lee remarked that the “self-congratulatory submissions" of former board members named in the case were "jarring”.

The Federal Court has cautioned self-represented litigants against using generative artificial intelligence to decide whether their case has merit, saying it is "not reliable for legal help”. 

In the latest chapter of a bitter feud between NSW Director of Public Prosecutions and District Court Judge Penelope Wass, the state's Court of Appeal has found parliamentary privilege doesn't bar the top prosecutor from launching a recusal bid in a criminal trial.