A Federal Circuit Court judge has hit back at accusations he conducted “the grossest parody of a court hearing” when he unlawfully imprisoned a Queensland man for contempt of court, telling a trial “he is a human being [who] made a mistake”.
Spurred by the Banksia class action scandal, the federal government has implemented new regulations requiring litigation funders to manage conflicts of interest that arise when the lawyers acting on a class action have a “material financial interest” in the funder that’s running it.
Law firm Sparke Helmore acted negligently by failing to adequately advise a New South Wales property developer about extension of time notices that were needed to prevent two lucrative contracts from falling through, a judge has found.
Former Liberal power broker Marcus Bastiaan has told a court he will seek an injunction to prevent investigative journalist Nick McKenzie from “door-knocking and harassing” witnesses in a defamation lawsuit over an explosive 60 Minutes report.
A Queensland lawyer’s name has been removed from the local roll after eight weeks of “disgraceful, disturbing and dishonourable” conduct while unlawfully acting for a friend in an estate dispute.
A Melbourne lawyer has been found guilty of 14 charges of professional misconduct for misappropriating trust funds and failing to pay tens of thousands of dollars in fees to seven barristers.
MinterEllison and Crown Resort’s internal lawyers were partially at fault for misconduct unearthed in a damning Royal Commission report into the casino operator because they failed to ask whether certain actions were moral as well as legal, the commissioner has found.
Christian Porter and silk Sue Chrysanthou are fighting a $550,000 legal bill of Jo Dyer, a friend of the woman who accused Porter of rape, after she succeeded in having the barrister removed from the former attorney-general’s defamation lawsuit against the ABC.
The lawyer at the centre of a $160,000 legal battle with former employer Norton Rose Fulbright has been restrained from acting as his own corporation’s legal representative in a joint venture dispute due to a conflict of interest.
Last week’s judgment denouncing the scandalous behaviour of the legal team running the Banksia Securities class action cast a spotlight on the conduct of lawyers for some of the defendants, asking whether “untenable” defences were maintained beyond an acceptable point in the case.