Region

A judge has ordered solicitors in a residential building spat to explain why costs orders should not be made against them, after they racked up sizeable fees for what she described as a small and simple dispute.

The Northern Territory government has lost its bid to block a sexual harassment complaint against a former judge of the state's Supreme Court by his female associate. 

Recently appointed NSW Supreme Court Justice Paul McGuire, who spent two years as a district court judge, has been lauded as the ideal candidate to star in training videos for new judges due to his courteous manner and restraint from performative flourishes.

A court has found a NSW prefab home builder that convinced a couple to vary their contract to allow different cladding which did not have the same aesthetic effect as their preferred one engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct.

Shinetec, the Australian arm of China’s Shanxi Construction Investment Group, has won orders restraining the developer of an abandoned $185 million project in NSW from accessing $48 million paid to it by Bank of China.

Melbourne developer SK Developments has won freezing orders against a builder, with a judge finding there was a danger that a $1.98 million judgment could be avoided. 

Property investment firm Charter Hall has sold its Bunnings Warehouse in the southeast Melbourne suburb of Clyde North for $44 million, in an off-market deal that reinforces the strength of retail real estate.

Retirement village operator Lifestyle Communities has foreshadowed an appeal after a tribunal ruled that exit fees charged to departing residents were void.

HWL Ebsworth has acquired Adelaide law firm Botten Levinson Lawyers, boosting the firm's environment and development law offering in the region.

In the third decision approving an unaltered group costs order at the resolution of a class action, a judge has OK'd an $85 million settlement by ANZ, representing a $21 million payday for Maurice Blackburn.