Mining giant Rio Tinto faces a potential class action over allegations of sex discrimination and sexual harassment at mine sites in Australia, following a report that made “disturbing” findings about the company’s workplace culture.
A Melbourne car dealer has largely lost a consumer law case against Honda Australia over its decision to abandon a dealership model, but is set to receive compensation for over 2,600 new vehicles it could have sold if Honda hadn’t ended its five-year contract early.
A former PricewaterhouseCoopers partner has brought defamation proceedings over public statements he alleges falsely linked him to the tax leaks scandal that rocked the professional services firm last year.
Law firm Atanaskovic Hartnell has argued that its alleged failure to provide updated fee estimates while acting for a company associated with investor Nicholas Bolton did not mean he is immune from paying fair and reasonable legal fees assessed at $308,940.
A new report has blasted the NSW government’s reliance on the Big Four consulting firms, saying it has led to a “downward spiral” of the public sector, and urged the state to never use their services for “core” government work and only as a “last resort” for other matters.
Drug giant Glaxo has succeeded in extending the term for a patent for a drug that treats chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma, with a delegate rejecting arguments from law firm Banki Haddock Fiora that the application was incorrectly based on a patent that was no longer valid because of amendments.
A shareholder has dropped her case against ANZ over concerns it was failing to properly manage climate change risk, after the bank publicly committed to treating it as a key risk, later revealing it would stop providing project finance to new or expanded oil and gas projects.
Moves to restore public confidence in the government reviews process are underway after the federal Parliament passed new legislation replacing the “damaged” Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which has been criticised for failing to stop the Robodebt scheme, with a new Administrative Review Tribunal.
Hearing arguments Tuesday on whether lawyers should be permitted to earn contingency fees in Federal Court class actions, judges on a Full Court bench appeared to lean in favour of allowing so-called solicitors’ common fund orders, rejecting claims they are “unjust”.
Two units of insurer IAG have been hit with a class action for allegedly misleading hundreds of thousands of home owners insurance customers about loyalty discounts.
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