Law firm Slater and Gordon is investigating a class action against hospitals for encouraging “excessive and unsafe” work hours by doctors, some of whom the firm found routinely work up to 100 hours per week.
ASIC will soon have more ammunition to go after corporate wrongdoers, after the Senate passed legislation that arms the regulator to seek harsher civil and criminal sanctions against banks, their executives and others that breach the corporate and financial services law.
A product liability class action has been filed against the manufacturers of Alucobond PE cladding, the first of what’s expected to be several lawsuits over the combustible cladding, believed to be in the majority of buildings in Australia.
The Federal Government is proposing changes to right of entry rules that would require permits to be issued in photo ID format, in a bid to curb abuse by “militant” union officials.
GM Holden has lost most of its case for design infringement against a company that imported and distributed spare car parts used to “up-spec” lower range Holden models, in the court’s first test of the Designs Act’s repair defence.
The judge overseeing the marathon trial between agricultural giants Cargill and Viterra over the $420 million sale of malt producer Joe White has shot down objections to both parties’ expert reports related to whether it was common industry practice to cheat customers by failing to comply with contract details and providing misleading malt test results.
Mylan has appealed a ruling invaliding claims of its cholesterol drug patent and dismissing its patent infringement case against Sun Pharma.
The government has introduced legislation that would make casual conversion – under which casuals can ask to be moved to a full or part-time position after 12 months – a right of all workers, but the ACTU has come out swinging against the proposal, calling it “a backdoor to casualisation”.
Poppy processor TPI Enterprises has agreed to stop selling seed from high codeine poppy plants while it defends a lawsuit by rival Tasmanian Alkaloids alleging TPI infringed two of its innovation patents for high codeine-concentrated poppy.
A construction company has lost its appeal of a ruling that it illegally blocked CFMMEU officials from entering a work site to meet with union members, with a judge saying the union did not need to prove intent to obstruct to make its case for violations of the Fair Work Act.