A law firm that negotiated a $2.4 million settlement for Melbourne’s Barfly’s in a negligence suit against the Bourke Street cafe’s former solicitors is now in litigation itself against Barflys over unpaid fees, but a bid by the firm for the cafe to hand over $745,000 to the court in trust has fallen flat.
Former Leighton Holdings chief financial officer Peter Gregg has won his appeal of convictions last year over an alleged sham contract with a steel supplier, with an appeals court on Wednesday saying there had been a “substantial miscarriage of justice”.
The judge overseeing a settled class action against Murray Goulburn, which earned millions of dollars for the same legal team accused of serious misconduct in the running of the Banksia class action, invited the parties last month to reopen the case, concerned he had been misled when approving the lawyers’ costs.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has lost its appeal of a ruling that found Woolworths’ environmental claims for its ‘Select Eco’ line of compostable plates, bowls and cutlery were accurate, not false and misleading.
Google has rejected claims by the ACCC that it tricked consumers into agreeing to expanded collection of their personal data, saying that it instead sought “explicit consent” from users through an “easy-to-understand opt-in consent mechanism”.
A union representing retail employees has taken discount supermarket chain Aldi to court for allegedly refusing to pay employees at one of its distribution centres for pre-shift work, saying Aldi had gone “from bad to worse” after also denying workers a pay rise.
A judge has approved a $7 million settlement in a class action against the directors of pharmaceutical company QRxPharma, only a third of which will go to group members, saying proportionality was not a basis for rejecting fees that were otherwise fair and reasonable.
The Full Federal Court will weigh in on whether common fund orders can be made at settlement in two class actions against 7-Eleven, with a hearing scheduled for the same day the NSW Court of Appeal will hear arguments on the unresolved issue.
Facebook will press on with its argument that it can’t be sued in Australia by the country’s privacy commissioner for alleged disclosure of users’ personal data, after a judge found there was enough evidence the social media giant conducted business in the country by installing and operating cookies on the devices of Australia users.
US white shoe firm White & Case has snagged a leading tax partner from Herbert Smith Freehills’ tax firm to bolster its growing team in Australia.
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