While the recommendations of three previous inquiries stay shelved, Attorney General Christian Porter has announced another examination into Australia’s class action regime, a move panned as purely political by at least one leading practitioner.
Law firm Maurice Blackburn has taken legal action on behalf of a sports club which missed out on funding from a $100 million grants program, in what could be a test case for other clubs that lost out because of the so-called ‘sports rorts’ affair.
Law firm Clayton Utz has sent staff at its Sydney office home amid concerns that one of its employees may have been exposed to the coronavirus.
A maritime development company has failed in its bid to resume its competition lawsuit against NSW Ports, with the Federal Court ordering that the proceedings remained stayed until a similar case brought by the competition regulator is heard.
The builder behind the ill-fated Opal Tower has lost its opposition in the NSW Supreme Court to a $3.9 million guarantee requested by the property’s developer, after a judge found it had not proved compliance with its contractual obligations.
Litigation funder Augusta Ventures has had its appeal of a groundbreaking ruling that put it on the hook for security for costs in a Fair Work class action pushed back by three months after a delayed case management hearing, with a Federal Court judge telling the parties they were to blame.
As Victoria looks set to pass legislation allowing law firms to cut litigation funders out of class action work, and the High Court increases the risks of financing group proceedings, funders operating in Australia have been forced to think on their feet to adapt to the ever-changing regime. Australia’s largest litigation funder IMF Bentham is no exception, CEO Andrew Saker told Lawyerly.
The City of Melbourne has rejected a claim for damages for allegedly infringing a patented parking detection system created by tech firm Vehicle Monitoring Systems, saying it was not aware of the existence of two patents underlying the invention.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says it has no grounds to challenge a ruling that found the $15 billion merger of Vodafone with telecommunications rival TPG would not substantially lessen competition.
A former financial advisor has pleaded guilty to charges that he falsified share applications to satisfy minimum spread requirements for four companies wanting to float on the Australian Stock Exchange, in the first criminal case of its kind.
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