From the ongoing saga of the high-profile Christian Porter action against the ABC to “backyard” litigation testing the serious harm bar, defamation cases made headlines in 2022, with winners and losers alike shelling out millions to lawyers to protect their reputations.
An investor class action against RCR Tomlinson has reached a walk-away settlement agreement with two former directors of the failed engineering company.
Law firm Holding Redlich has been sued by the NSW Labor Party for allegedly providing negligent advice on $100,000 in illegal political donations delivered in an Aldi bag and the ICAC investigation that followed, setting the party back $1.8 million in legal costs.
Lithium prospecting company AVZ Minerals is facing a potential class action for allegedly misleading shareholders about its ownership rights to its flagship lithium project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A judge has signed off on a group costs order in class action against Allianz over add-on car insurance that will give plaintiff law firms Johnson Winter & Slattery and Maurice Blackburn no more than 25 per cent of any resolution in the case.
A judge has cut a funder’s commission by 33 per cent after approving a $20 million settlement in a sham contracting class action against telco contractor BSA Limited, finding that funders should receive “significantly lower” payouts in employment cases.
A judge has approved a $1 million penalty against Queensland crane company NQ Cranes for engaging in a conspiracy with a multinational rival to divide the Brisbane and Newcastle markets.
A judge has hit Optus, Telstra, and TPG with a total of $33.5 million in penalties for misleading thousands of NBN customers into paying for internet speeds that could not be achieved.
Telstra has agreed to pay a $15 million penalty for misleading thousands of NBN customers about internet plan speeds, a sum which will bring the telco’s bill for consumer law violations since 2018 up to $75 million, if approved.
Optus has agreed to pay a $13.5 million penalty for misleading thousands of NBN customers into paying for internet plan speeds that could not be achieved, the telco’s third penalty in four years over misleading representations made in relation to its NBN services.