Veteran of the NSW bar Edward Muston SC has been sworn in as the newest judge of the state’s Supreme Court, but before he was prosecuting high stakes environmental law cases, his plan was to be a jackaroo.
The peak body for barristers in Australia has reinstated its diversity and inclusion committee, after its chair posted on LinkedIn that the committee was being discontinued.
A senior counsel who represented the Department of Defence in a PFAS class action that settled for $132.7 million and a silk who helped Keybridge Capital defeat a suit by investor Nicholas Bolton have been appointed judges on the NSW Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court of Victoria has debuted a new expedited case list for the Commercial Court, aimed at fast-tracking urgent cases and those that can be heard in three days or less.
A judge did not need to recuse himself from deciding the penalty in ASIC’s case against Sunshine Loans because his earlier adverse credit findings — far from giving rise to bias concerns — were relevant to the task, the regulator has told the High Court.
Releasing guidelines for the use of generative artificial intelligence, the Queensland court system has this week cautioned judges against the use of AI tools for decision-making.
A recent property dispute involving a self-represented litigant who relied on AI-generated submissions, including at least one ‘hallucinated’ case, has prompted questions about the need for more active case management of the use of AI by unrepresented parties to prevent wasting court time.
Another solicitor has been reported by a court to the legal watchdog and personally socked with costs for citing non-existent authorities generated by an artificial intelligence program.
The number of reported threats to judges is growing at an alarming rate, and urgent action by federal and state attorneys-general is needed, according to the Australia’s peak body for judicial officers.
The legal watchdog’s latest case against the owners of a Melbourne law firm — part of countless “collateral” proceedings between the parties — should be fixed for a final hearing ASAP, a judge has said.