A judge has refused a bid by the ACT Police Chief to intervene on behalf of the AFP in Shane Drumgold SC legal challenge to the findings of an inquiry into the prosecution of Brittany Higgins’ assault claims against Bruce Lehrmann, but has allowed six police officers to be joined to defend the findings.
The judge overseeing Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial against Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson has rejected a bid by the former chief of staff to then defence minister Linda Reynolds to avoid giving evidence on the basis of “harm it may cause to her health conditions”.
The former chief of staff for MP Linda Reynolds has denied that Brittany Higgins disclosed an alleged sexual assault to her in March 2019.
A Queensland MP known to Brittany Higgins has told a court that the former Liberal staffer told him that a colleague had raped her, just days after she was allegedly assaulted by Bruce Lehrmann.
Two law firms running competing class actions against Qantas over flight cancellations during the COVID-19 pandemic have agreed to cooperate after a judge took them to task for revising their funding positions in the lead up to a courtroom battle.
The percentage of senior women barristers who were briefed on cases in the past financial year dropped from the previous year, according to the latest report on the peak legal body’s equitable briefing initiative. The proportion of all counsel fees going to women also took a slide, the Law Council of Australia said.
Acciona has prevailed in a fight with subcontractor EnerMech over a $10 million progress payment, which a judge found was instead an attempt by EnerMech to claim a credit in relation to security paid to Acciona.
The funders that bankrolled a securities class action against collapsed engineering firm RCR Tomlinson will ask the court to give them an $8 million cut of a $40 million settlement. A further $12 million in legal fees means shareholders will get 50 per cent of the settlement sum.
A now-banned financial adviser has been hit with two charges of providing misleading information to the corporate regulator during a compulsory examination.
A judge has awarded carriage of a class action against Toyota unit Hino to Maurice Blackburn, finding that the law firm’s experience and resources trumped those of small personal injury firm Gerard Malouf & Partners, despite its alliance with a large US firm.
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