MinterEllison

Disgraced soldier Ben Roberts-Smith is digging in with his attack on a judge's findings that he committed war crimes in Afghanistan, asking the High Court to find in his favour in a defamation case against Nine.

Johns Lyng Group confirmed Wednesday it had received a takeover offer from Pacific Equity Partners for an undisclosed sum and has granted the private equity firm an exclusivity period to undergo due diligence.

The Valuer-General of Victoria has won a High Court appeal against developer WSTI Properties over a $2.9 million valuation for a heritage property in Melbourne, which centred on the meaning of an “improvement” to the land. 

In a blow for the plaintiffs in a long-running class action over the government's live exports ban, a judge has found that no additional cattle would have been exported to Indonesia in 2012 and 2013 if the ban had not been in place. 

An email to lawyers at Clifford Chance relied on to show investor Fiona Lock’s understanding of a contested $150 million profit sharing deal with trading platform Pepperstone did not open the door to further correspondence.

Former Victorian Liberal Party leader John Pesutto has been hit with a bankruptcy notice after failing to pay $2.3 million in costs in MP Moira Deeming’s defamation suit over statements implying she had links to neo-Nazis. 

A legal challenge over a Sydney private school's plans to go co-ed has been dismissed, with a judge ruling the word "youth" in the school's 150-year old founding document had a gender neutral meaning.

Defunct education provider Captain Cook College and its parent company have been penalised over $30 million for enrolling thousands of vulnerable students who accrued $60 million in debt.

In tossing his challenge to a finding that he committed war crimes in Afghanistan, an appeals court rejected Ben Roberts-Smith’s criticisms of the trial judge, finding the judge gave sufficient weight to the presumption of innocence. 

A court has rejected Ben Roberts-Smith’s appeal of a decision that found he committed war crimes in Afghanistan, as well as the disgraced soldier’s bid to re-open the case in light of a secret recording of Nine journalist Nick McKenzie.