The High Court has ruled that the “direct and far-reaching ramifications” of a contract between the federal government and Tasmania’s two major airports justifies an order for declaratory relief sought by local councils about the obligation of the airports’ operators to pay rates.
An appeal by billionaire Clive Palmer and his mining company Mineralogy has succeeded in reinstating parts of their defence attacking the state of mind of Hong Kong-based conglomerate CITIC in allegedly applying commercial pressure over the $5.8 billion Sino Iron project in Western Australia.
A judge has come down hard on a settlement in class actions against supermarket chain Romeo’s, saying group members had been kept in the dark and the costs to be paid to the plaintiffs’ firm did not add up.
A class action settlement with Woolworths which “troubled” a Federal Court judge has been abandoned, with the lead applicants resuming their bid to intervene in a parallel proceeding brought by the Fair Work Ombudsman against the supermarket giant.
HWL Ebsworth has told a judge the law firm’s omission of a mutual debt liability clause in a joint venture contract could not have led former client Dairycorp to lose a $130 million opportunity to develop land northwest of Sydney.
As we reach the 30-year anniversary of the modern form of class action in Australia, an enduring characteristic of class action practice in this country is that the area is not well-suited to those who enjoy certainty or predictability, say Jason Betts, Aoife Xuereb and Melissa Gladstone-Joyce of Herbert Smith Freehills.
The NSW Supreme Court’s new Chief Justice has used his maiden speech to lament how remote hearings and working from home has led to the “insidious depersonalisation” of the legal profession, with half-empty chambers and solicitor’s offices losing their soul and personality.
Buy now, pay later giant Zip Co cannot rely on its infringing use of the ‘Zip’ trade mark to defend a lawsuit by the mark’s owner Firstmac, the mortgage provider’s barrister told a judge on the first day of trial in the high-stakes intellectual property dispute.
Online marketplace Redbubble cannot rely on the terms of a settlement with the US chapter of Hells Angels to avoid trade mark infringement claims by the Australian arm of the bikie gang, a court has ruled.
Clients of Linchpin Capital Group and subsidiary Endeavour Securities who were promised investments in a diversified loan portfolio were instead duped into funding Linchpin’s own business interests and lining its directors’ pockets, a judge has heard as trial got underway in ASIC’s case against three former Linchpin directors.
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