At some point during the two hours Justice Michael Lee held court on Monday, 45,000 viewers were tuned in to the livestream. What they witnessed as he pronounced judgment against Bruce Lehrmann was arguably the vindication of Network Ten and some measure of justice for Brittany Higgins, but not only that. What they saw was a judge at the top of his game.
Attacks at trial on the credibility of Bruce Lehrmann hit their target, but it’s still his case to lose on Monday morning, when judgment is delivered on his defamation claims against Ten. Throughout the case the network has borne the burden of proving Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation was true, and it is the very seriousness of that allegation that made the task harder.
Competition law experts have raised doubts about changes to Australia’s merger review regime announced Wednesday, calling the reforms a mixed bag for businesses and the reduced role of the Federal Court “disappointing”.
Leading lawyers have welcomed a new practice note in the Commercial Court division of the Victorian Supreme Court, including a “rigid framework” to cut down on interlocutory disputation which is expected to benefit commercial class action litigants, but some say the note “should have gone further” to compel discovery from defendants.
When the Supreme Court of Victoria considers for the first time a settlement reached in a class action run on a contingency fee basis, it will grapple with some novel questions, including whether to trim the 27.5 per cent group costs order granted to Slater & Gordon at the outset of the case, legal experts say.
Did Bruce Lehrmann rape colleague Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in 2019? That is the primary question in the case to be decided by the Federal Court early next month, and the credibility of the two principal protagonists is central to answering that question.
Mainstream adoption of artificial intelligence in the legal community is right around the corner, and experts have urged law firm partners to take control and rise to the challenge rather than letting junior lawyers determine when and how the technology is utilised.
More companies may find themselves in the position of Medibank — which recently failed to stay representative proceedings before the privacy regulator while a related class action is on foot — so long as the laws remain unchanged, and law firms are willing to gamble on privacy class actions.
The DPP’s complaint to Victoria’s judicial watchdog that prompted the shock resignation of Supreme Court Justice Lex Lasry was an abuse of process, experts say, and the judge’s decision to step down was a “deeply saddening end to a stellar judicial career”. But the Office of Public Prosecutions has strongly rejected the claim.
The ACCC’s rejection of a $4.9 billion merger between ANZ and Suncorp was hardly surprising given the concentrated nature of the home loans market, but the competition regulator faced an uphill battle in having the decision upheld, an expert says.