The number of law firms forcing staff to work remotely in response to concerns about exposure to the new coronavirus has grown, with four firms making the decision Thursday to shut down floors or whole offices.
Victorian Attorney-General Jill Hennessy is “cautiously confident” that her bill allowing lawyers in the state to charge contingency fees will pass as early as next week, but the class action reform couldn’t come soon enough, she says.
Telstra has won its battle with Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane over a planned upgrade of its payphone network across Australia, with a judge ruling the teleco did not need planning permits to install the next generation, digital phone booths.
Facebook has been hit with regulatory action by the Privacy Commissioner alleging the social media giant exposed the personal information of over 300,000 Australian users to third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, without authorisation.
A theatre producer facing a lawsuit by his former collaborators for stealing the script for his off-Broadway puppet show parody of the 80s TV sitcom Golden Girls has lost his own legal action against them, which alleged they defamed him and engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by talking to a New York Times reporter about their lawsuit.
Staff at the Sydney office of Clayton Utz can return to work Monday after the law firm sent employees home last week amid concerns that one of its employees has been exposed to the coronavirus.
Country Care and two employees have lost an appeal of a first-of-its kind Federal Court ruling on jury directions in a criminal cartel case against the mobile equipment provider.
A former Norton Rose Fulbright partner who accused a Federal Court judge of bias has failed in his bid to have the judge recuse himself on the first day of trial in the long running termination dispute, which was heard in Melbourne this week.
While the recommendations of three previous inquiries stay shelved, Attorney General Christian Porter has announced another examination into Australia’s class action regime, a move panned as purely political by at least one leading practitioner.
As Victoria looks set to pass legislation allowing law firms to cut litigation funders out of class action work, and the High Court increases the risks of financing group proceedings, funders operating in Australia have been forced to think on their feet to adapt to the ever-changing regime. Australia’s largest litigation funder IMF Bentham is no exception, CEO Andrew Saker told Lawyerly.