The Full Court is set to weigh in on whether judges who make adverse findings on credibility during the liability phase of a hearing should recuse themselves from determining penalty, an issue which a judge has said may require a new court protocol.
A unit of construction company Fletcher Building has been hit with a class action over its Pro-Fit pipes, which have been blamed by Western Australian builder BGC for plumbing failures in thousands of Perth homes.
As the Fair Work Commission takes its plan to appoint an administrator to the construction division of the CFMEU to court, a judge has recused himself from hearing the case after acting against the union while at the bar.
A judge has signed off on a $23.1 million cut for funder Augusta of a $100 million settlement in a class action against Colonial First State, which he previously called “strange” and said may not reflect the risk the funder shared with Slater & Gordon in running the case.
Car park operator Secure Parking has been hit with a $10.95 million penalty for misleading consumers in major cities about its car reservation service, causing them to be late or miss appointments and work commitments entirely.
IP Australia has rejected an Italian cheese lobby’s bid to block an American cheese maker from using a trade mark containing the word ‘asiago’, saying there was “very little evidence” Australians were aware of the cheese at all.
Relative newcomer Hamilton Locke has lured two lawyers from Corrs Chambers Westgarth and one from Gilbert + Tobin to grow its corporate team.
The High Court has been asked to overturn a Full Court decision finding lawyers can take a cut from a class action settlement under a solicitors’ common fund order and to finally settle the question of whether the court has the power to issue common fund orders at all.
A judge has signed off on an agreed-to $5 million penalty against Noumi in ASIC proceedings for violating its continuous disclosure obligations and found the food company’s non-disclosures caused it shares to trade at an inflated price.
The High Court is scheduled to hand down a judgment in a class action on Wednesday on the power of a product disclaimer to protect manufacturers from claims they owe a duty of care to protect purchasers from pure economic loss.