Victoria

Law firm Cornwalls is not on the hook for the Commonwealth Bank's costs in a negligence suit by a former client, a judge has found.

A Lucent Group vehicle is suing contractor Wolf Construction to stop it from enforcing a $379,000 SOPA ruling for works at a townhouse precinct development at the site of a former abattoir in Northcote, Melbourne.

The site owner of a proposed shopping centre in Melton must return $1.5 million to a defunct developer that allegedly breached a $30 million land sale contract, an appeals court has found.

Australian renewables company Goldwind has taken engineer Zenviron to court, alleging it's on the hook for $2.6 million in road rectification payments related to the construction of the Moorabool wind farm in Victoria.

Superannuation fund-owned IFM Investors has purchased four sites in high-growth Melbourne suburbs to develop into a $300 million shopping centre portfolio as part of a partnership with Fawkner Property and Oreana. 

A potential issue has arisen in a shareholder class action against Light & Wonder over an employee's theft of rival Aristocrat's trade secrets, with the court hearing the gaming company's $190 million settlement with Aristocrat requires it to destroy documents that could be relevant to the case.

A developer can't expand its case against its partners on a residential development at the site of the Lilydale Quarry weeks out from trial, with a judge saying the new claims were brought too late and would unfairly prejudice the defendants. 

A judge has said she does not want multiple expert reports in a $359 million lawsuit by builder CPB Contractors and John Holland against engineer Aurecon alleging defects in Melbourne's West Gate Tunnel.

Developer LBJ wants to amend its case over a residential development at Victoria's Lilydale Quarry weeks out from trial, with its joint venture partner arguing the court should not base its decision on LBJ's argument that there could be a sinkhole at the site.

In the six years since Victoria introduced a contingency fee regime, close to $200 million has been paid out to class action law firms. And with the Supreme Court soon to hear applications for approval of three more settlements, one firm is set to earn the highest payout to date.