Hancock Prospecting, owned by mining magnate Mrs Gina Rinehart, is fighting a bid by daughter Ms Bianca Rinehart to access the company’s books and records, saying an upcoming High Court decision may change the fate of the case.
Correspondence to a law firm revealing a client’s identity was covered by legal professional privilege because the firm’s advice was contingent on the client providing his name, a court has ruled.
A judge has refused a bid by two Australian companies to shut down a long-running wrongful death case in the US brought by the families of 15 people killed in an air crash near the Lockhart River in North Queensland in May 2005.
H.J. Heinz Company has been fined $2.25 million for marketing sugary snacks to kids as healthy, a fraction of the $10 million penalty sought by the ACCC.
Transport for NSW can appeal a decision by the state’s Civil and Administrative Tribunal that found collection of passengers’ travel history data through the Opal card system breached privacy laws.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is seeking to strike out portions of a shareholder class action over allegedly lax anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing controls it calls a “vague penumbra” that leaves the bank in the dark about the case against it.
AstraZeneca is appealing a Fair Work Commission decision that workers are guaranteed 10 days’ sick leave under the National Employment Standards regardless of how long their working day is.
The Full Federal Court has shot down Reckitt Benckiser’s appeal of a ruling that it misled consumers with claims that its Nurofen is a more effective pain killer than rival GlaxoSmithKline’s Panadol.
Private follow-on actions for consumer law violations will be easier to bring under a new bill recently introduced in the Senate, a potential boon to class action lawyers.
The Full Federal Court has handed Johnson & Johnson unit Ethicon a victory in the class action over its allegedly defective vaginal mesh devices, partly reversing a judge’s decision that expanded the class post-trial.
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