A judge has given the green light for HarperCollins to use several documents from a royal commission in its defence of defamation proceedings brought against it by two psychiatrists at the centre of the deep sleep therapy scandal that rocked the medical world in the 1960s and 70s.
Hong Kong-based casino group Melco Resorts has lost an application for special leave to the High Court to weigh in on a ruling that a NSW public inquiry into James Packer’s Crown Resorts had the power of a royal commission and could order privileged documents to be handed over.
Shine Lawyers and barrister David Turner have once again dodged a negligence lawsuit over advice given about a $630,000 contractual dispute, with an appeals court upholding an earlier decision dismissing a bid to join the two parties.
A judge has ordered WA-based Quantum Housing Group to pay $700,000 and its sole director another $50,000 after finding the company misled investors in the National Rental Affordability Scheme.
A Sydney-based law firm has been ordered to pay $1.4 million in damages for failing to properly advise a client of his rights under a partnership agreement after he suffered several strokes.
Restrictions to combat COVID-19 that forced Australia’s courts to go virtual have had unforseen benefits, and Australia’s top law firms say they don’t want online hearings to be scrapped when social distancing measures are eased.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has become the latest Big Four bank to be hit with a class action over the sales of allegedly worthless insurance products.
Domino’s is seeking to strike out portions of the “rolled up, confusing pleading” in a class action over alleged worker underpayments, saying the case cannot be brought under the consumer law.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission will have to face trial in a defamation lawsuit brought by a Queensland building and mortgage company over two media releases the corporate regulator issued in 2018 and 2019, after defeating a separate $10 million defamation case last year.
The judge overseeing three class actions against the Commonwealth over its use of allegedly toxic firefighting foam, which have settled for $212.5 million, said backing by a litigation funder led to a better outcome for group members, who would otherwise have been in the disadvantaged position of “supplicants requesting compensation”.
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