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.
The recent dismissal of two shareholder class actions after hard-fought trials is expected to lead to a recalibration of litigation risk and may discourage plaintiff firms and funders from pursuing what might once have been considered slam dunk cases, experts say.
Australian IP lawyers are closely watching The New York Times’ copyright lawsuit seeking billions in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, but it remains to be seen whether Australia will become a favoured jurisdiction for similar suits or be left playing catch up, experts say.
Expect more legal battles this year over the right to work from home, with employees continuing to demand flexibility but businesses starting to push back, according to legal experts.