The Australian Law Reform Commission has suggested judges should transfer applications for their own disqualification to a separate duty judge to decide, after hearing concerns about how the “bias blind spot” may operate in the existing self-disqualification procedure.
UK-based Woodsford Litigation Funding has become the first overseas funder authorised to finance Australian class actions under recent laws cracking down on the litigation funding industry.
A director of Gold Coast accounting firm Oculus has lost his bid to represent the company in a class action by investors in failed music streaming platform Guvera, with a judge unconvinced the company lacked the means to fund the litigation and finding the director was not suitable to represent the company.
The judge overseeing the first ever bid for a group costs order in a class action that will give the plaintiff’s law firm a percentage cut of the proceeds has urged the firm to rethink characterising its own solicitor as an expert.
A judge has ordered mining magnate Clive Palmer to pay damages of $1.5 million to Universal Music for his “contemptuous” behaviour in infringing “substantial parts” of Twisted Sister’s 1985 heavy metal hit ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ in advertisements for his political party.
Ben Roberts-Smith threatened legal action against his ex-wife, who is set to give evidence against him in an upcoming defamation trial, if she disclosed information to Fairfax’s lawyers that is subject to a confidentiality agreement, a court has heard.
Restaurant chain Hog’s Breath Café is facing a class action for allegedly misappropriating franchisee funds meant for advertising, including by paying a director’s girlfriend as a “consultant”.
An appeals court has split on whether a judge’s grilling of an expert witness in a personal injury case was appropriate, with the dissenting judge saying the questioning — which took up more than two-thirds of the cross examination — was excesssive, and hostile in parts.
A judge has imposed a $1.9 million penalty against Megasave Couriers after the delivery company was found to have misled franchisees with false promises of guaranteed minimum weekly payments and annual income.
As the no win, no fee model comes out on top in another high profile class action beauty contest, legal experts say third-party litigation funders will need to evolve and “fight back” to stay competitive.
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