Cindy Cameronne

The new federal corruption watchdog that commenced operating Friday will likely turn its sights first on the award of public grants, and is expected to face a “huge backlog” of referrals. 

A judge has cautioned two law firms running competing shareholder class actions over last October’s cyber attack on Medibank that they must keep their focus on the best interests of clients and group members, saying lawyers can lose sight of that duty when arguing for their case. 

The office of the special investigator wants access to evidence in Ben Roberts-Smith’s failed defamation case, a court has heard, while Fairfax says it needs to see invoices from Herbert Smith Freehills to the soldier’s financial backer, Seven chairman Kerry Stokes, in its bid for costs.

Ex-Network Ten political editor Peter van Onselen has told a judge he was worried when he signed a disputed non-disparagement agreement that the broadcaster would “hang him out to dry” in a sex discrimination lawsuit by a former reporter.

A judge has rejected an amended copyright case against US-based analytics company CoreLogic, expressing his displeasure at the use of imprecise phrases like ‘including’ and “such as’ in the revised pleading.

An inventor who claims Monster Energy infringed his patent for laser etched pull tabs is fighting the beverage giant’s bid for $150,000 in security for costs, saying its estimates were “monstrous”.

The risk of a recession-fueled slowdown is the biggest worry for small and mid-size law firms this year, according to a new report, as more than 35 per cent of firms expect revenues to remain flat or decline.

Mining magnate Clive Palmer and his company Mineralogy have lost a bid to amend one of two cases that claim losses totalling $4 billion against CITIC after a judge found the amended claims would be “unfairly general”.

An appeals court has held that a Sydney solicitor can’t be sued for negligence for a failure to include a breach of contract claim in a building dispute, saying the lawyer was protected by advocate’s immunity because his decision was “intimately connected” with the litigation.

In a decade-old dispute, Viterra has lost an appeal of a judgment holding it liable to pay Cargill Australia $293 million for misrepresentations about the performance of its malt producer Joe White, which it sold to Cargill for $420 million in 2013.