Reforms by the Morrison government passed earlier this month weakening continuous disclosure obligations will spur corporate defendants to engage in “expensive interlocutory warfare” to shut down class actions right off the bat, and plaintiffs lawyers are waiting to see how the courts interpret the new laws to determine these early strike-out fights.
Insurers Lloyds Australia and QBE want class actions by policyholders who were denied business interruption coverage for COVID-related shutdowns stayed until a related test case in the Federal Court is decided.
The Australian Bar Association has criticised “flawed” methodology used to analyse the competency of judges, weighing in on controversy over the Australian Law Reform Commission’s handling of a submission to its judicial impartiality inquiry.
New standalone innovation patents will no longer be able to be filed after 25 August 2021. Patentees who wish to benefit from the innovation patent system must take steps to ensure that any complete application for an innovation patent or a standard complete application (from which they could divide out later) be filed on or before 25 August 2021, say James Lawrence and Dominique Blik of Mills Oakley.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is investigating whether new legislation is needed to address the impact of dominant digital platforms such as Google and Apple, as the regulator’s overseas counterparts usher in bills aimed at cracking down on anticompetitive behaviour.
Prosecutors have withdrawn two-thirds of the charges in a criminal cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement and have dropped their case against former Citigroup CEO Stephen Roberts, according to a lawyer in the case.
International sporting goods giant Decathlon has been ordered to pay a $1.5 million penalty for selling hundreds of basketball hoops and inflatable swimming pools that did not comply with mandatory safety standards.
A judge has refused to order Commonwealth Bank of Australia to publish notice of a $7 million penalty in a case brought by ASIC on its mobile app, but the bank will have to alert customers to its misconduct on its website and online newsroom.
Ashurst is expanding its financial regulation practice with the appointment of consumer credit expert Hong-Viet Nguyen from HWL Ebsworth Lawyers.
Liberal MP Christian Porter has asked a court to ensure Nine and News Corp. do not use secret portions of ABC’s defence to his defamation allegations, which the media giants accessed as intervenors in the former federal Attorney-General’s case.