Two former directors of Tennis Australia can’t access chats between ASIC and other executives from the tennis body, with a judge finding the documents recording the communications with the potential witnesses were created in anticipation of litigation and were therefore privileged.
In a recent decision, Federal Court Justice Jonathan Beach approved the settlement of the securities class action against Sirtex Medical. The approval included the judge making a common fund order and allowing funder IMF Bentham’s commission in the amount of $10 million, namely 25% of the gross settlement sum of $40 million. In approving the commission, Justice Beach noted that the rate should properly provide a reward for the risks undertaken by the funder, writes IMF Bentham’s Gavin Beardsell and Kate Hurford.
The liquidators of Plutus Payroll Australia, the company at the heart of a high profile $105 million tax fraud, can determine that claims made during the liquidation by some of its 4,500 workers are not claims of employees and do not need to be prioritised.
Hytera will take another shot at winning court approval to amend its defence so it can blame Motorola for not alerting it to the alleged theft of the US telco’s source code by former employees sooner.
A simmering battle over the ‘oro’ trade mark has bubbled over, with Australian coffee giant Vittoria filing Federal Court proceedings alleging Italian competitor Lavazza has knowingly violated its trade mark for the Italian word gold.
State Street Global Advisors has been given the go-ahead to use evidence unearthed in its trade mark and copyright action against Maurice Blackburn over the iconic Fearless Girl statue as evidence in a related US lawsuit against the sculpture’s creator.
A court has ordered James Cook University to pay over $1.2 million to a controversial climate change professor who was sacked in a manner the judge found “reprehensibly unfair” and an “egregious abuse of power”.
Google will need to mount a full defence over its liability for defamatory material in search results, after it lost its bid for summary dismissal of a second claim brought by a South Australian doctor over the availability of ‘Rip-off Report’ posts.
Electronics giant LG has been ordered to pay a $160,000 penalty after its call centre workers misled two complaining customers about their rights to replace a faulty television or get a refund under the Australian Consumer Law.
Recent high-profile court losses will do nothing to deter the competition and consumer watchdog according to ACCC boss Rod Sims, who says he “does not want a 100 per cent success rate” because it would mean the regulator was not being sufficiently aggressive.
For information on rights and reprints, contact subscriptions@lawyerly.com.au
