Victoria

Casino operator Crown has agreed to pay $73 million over two years to settle a shareholder class action accusing it of lax money laundering compliance, with solicitors set to take home $20 million.

A judge has found that there is no need to revise the 27.5 per cent group costs order secured by Slater and Gordon following the consolidation of two class actions against Insurance Australia, despite the likelihood of a larger payout to the firm.  

An appeals court has held that directors cannot be found guilty of unlawfully making a deal to prevent employees from receiving their entitlements if they believe they could be paid out under the Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme.

A Victorian construction company is fighting a bid by a creditor it says should not be allowed to “come out of the woodwork” and take over the winding up application of a company that has since been deregistered.

A Melbourne University engineering professor who was sacked for sending intimate messages to a PhD student has been reinstated after the Fair Work Commission found he was unfairly dismissed.

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.

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

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.

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”.