The Federal Government is considering reforms targeting litigation funders in response to what it has called a greater number of “increasingly politicised” class actions against companies in the mining and resources industry.
The Federal Court has ruled against mining services firm Thiess in a class action brought by construction workers seeking unpaid wages for time spent on the bus travelling home from work on the project site for a Pilbara-based liquefied natural gas processing plant owned by Woodside Energy.
Bail conditions have been set for a former BlueScope Steel executive charged with obstructing an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission criminal cartel probe into the steel company, the first criminal charges ever brought against an individual in relation to an ACCC investigation.
The sole director and shareholder of OE Solutions can challenge a ruling ordering him to hand over seized documents to Australian automotive electronics developer Directed Electronics OE, with the Full Federal Court declining to adopt US precedent that carves out an exception to the privilege against self-incrimination for corporate custodians.
The Federal Court has rejected an “unusual” confidentiality regime proposed by Domino’s Pizza Enterprises which would have resulted in restricted access to discovered documents for the funder backing the class action against the global fast food giant.
Former Tennis Australia director Harold Mitchell was “pushing very hard” for the Seven Network to score the domestic broadcast rights to the Australian Open in 2013 over better offers from rival broadcasters, the Federal Court heard Monday.
Nationwide News is backpedaling from claims that a $2.9 million defamation judgment won by actor Geoffrey Rush should be overturned because of apprehended bias on the part of the trial judge.
IP Australia has found two Encompass innovation patents that were at the centre of a highly anticipated Full Federal Court ruling on the patentability of computer software do not describe a manner of manufacture, despite an amendment from the financial software company.
Three former Vocation executives — including former federal Treasurer John Dawkins — have been hit with disaqualification orders and fines totalling $125,000 after a court found they breached their directors’ duties ahead of the collapse of the education provider.
A hearing scheduled for next year in the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s case against two NAB wealth management units will focus solely on how steep a penalty the bank should face after it made admissions about its fees for no service conduct.
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