Victoria

The Victorian Bar has hit back at media reporting around the management of commercial litigation by Australian courts which singled out judges of the Supreme Court, saying “statistics never tell the whole story”.

A judge hearing a dispute over a lot in Victoria's Merrifield Business Park has found that the Competition and Consumer Act's bar on contracts that substantially lessen competition does not apply to a market in land.

The state of Victoria has attacked the “magical thinking” of a class action over its COVID-19 hotel quarantine debacle, as the applicants seek to plead an alternative case holding the state responsible for a wave of infections.

A court has appointed provisional liquidators to Melbourne developer Lion Property Group after hearing that $120 million of investor money was not properly accounted for.

A law firm fighting for carriage of class actions against Hyundai and Kia has argued competing proceedings with a lower funding rate should not have a leg up, saying the rival firm’s budget was a "fantasy".

A six-storey shopping centre in Melbourne’s CBD has been snatched up for $80.1 million by a private investor.

A judge has approved a bid to discontinue a class action against Apple over updates that allegedly “throttled” the performance of iPhones, after the lawyers running the case failed to secure litigation funding.

A judge has OK'd a settlement in a class action against Treasury Wine Estates, along with $27 million in fees charged by Maurice Blackburn and Slater & Gordon, after initially questioning the difference between the firms' rates.

A real estate developer based in the Victorian town slated as the location for a waste-to-energy plant has lost its challenge to the proposed project.

An Acciona unit has sued Dual Australia, claiming the insurer is on the hook for $3 million in remediation for alleged design defects by a subcontractor on a Fulton Hogan quarry in Victoria.