A judge should be disqualified from hearing a class action against Fletcher Building because of his previous association with the funder, as well as public remarks he made as a plaintiffs’ solicitor, a court has heard.
A second law firm has filed a class action against Harvey Norman alleging it sold extended warranties to customers that had “no real value”.
The state of Victoria is resisting a class action’s bid to identify police officers recorded using capsicum spray against protestors at a mining conference in 2019.
Homes Victoria’s claim that there are no documents recording its reasons for deciding to demolish and redevelop two public housing towers that housed 1,200 people left a judge “startled”.
The top prosecutor in Victoria who made complaints about two judges, prompting one to resign, has been elevated to the state’s Supreme Court.
The top judge in Victoria who steered the Supreme Court through the COVID-19 pandemic is stepping down after 14 years on the bench.
A Melbourne solicitor has been fined for applying for compensation on behalf of twenty clients from the Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal for the installation of CCTV systems by a company which she had an interest in.
A Sleeping Duck shareholder has been ordered to pay the company’s costs on an indemnity basis in its failed oppression suit, with a judge finding that its decisions to reject Sleeping Duck’s buy-out offers of roughly $4 million were unreasonable.
Class action settlement approval hearings are not a time for the court to second guess a law firm’s contingency fee as set down in a group costs order, a judge has found, but the question of proportionality is still key, and evidence of a firm’s return on investment and hourly fees may be relevant to the final decision.
Several insurers have won a dispute with two Melbourne businesses about whether an industrial special risks policy can cover losses suffered during COVID-19 lockdowns, with a judge finding the policy did not respond just because there were recorded cases in Melbourne.