Sam Matthews

Counsel for John Barilaro on Tuesday detailed the online abuse his lawyers faced in acting in a defamation suit over videos posted by commentator Jordan Shanks, as the court heard YouTube owner Google has abandoned its last line of defence in the case.

Former deputy premier of NSW John Barilaro considered “harming himself” after videos were posted by YouTuber Jordan Shanks as part of a “vile and particularly racist smear campaign” facilitated by Google, a court has heard.

Australia ranks second in the world for climate-related lawsuits, and the threat of climate litigation looms larger than ever for Australian companies across all sectors, a new report has found.

Calling it the “elephant in the room”, a judge overseeing a class action against Tyro over a major EFTPOS outage last year has said a dispute over who is eligible to join the case needs to be hashed out before retailers are notified of the proceedings.

The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission has appointed former MinterEllison managing partner Annette Kimmitt as CEO after an “extensive” recruitment process, a year to the month after she was shown the door at the Big 6 firm for her controversial staff emails about a partner’s work for then Attorney-General Christian Porter. 

A former auditor of collapsed video company BigUn has had his company auditor registration suspended for a year following an application by the corporate regulator over a conflict of interest. 

Honda Australia has been hit with a lawsuit by three former dealers over its decision to abandon a dealership model in Australia, the latest car maker to face litigation by car dealers.

A Fair Work commissioner who previously slammed vaccine mandates as “medical apartheid” has found that an Australian National University professor was unfairly fired over a 30-minute “intimate” beach encounter with a student.

National fitness chain F45 has appealed a court decision revoking two of its patents for a computer-run trainer workout system, arguing its system constituted a technological innovation in the field of fitness studio franchising which rival Body Fit has profited from.

A judge has questioned the $55,000 penalty jointly proposed by the parties in ASIC’s case against fintech company Squirrel Super over misleading statements about returns on property statements, saying it “might be a bit light on.”