Sam Matthews

A proposed interest-free payment plan for a $450 million penalty agreed to between Crown Resorts and AUSTRAC has been questioned by a judge, who said it would have “the Commonwealth of Australia act as the Crown’s banker” for two years.

A judge overseeing a class action over the government’s total ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia has challenged the applicant’s bid to base group member damages on an increased number of cows that could have been exported, three years after the lead applicant won a $2.9 million judgment.

The NSW Bar Council has resolved to reprimand leading defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC over her decision to accept a brief from former Attorney-General Christian Porter despite receiving confidential information from a friend of his accuser.

Data exposed by a cyberattack against law firm HWL Ebsworth included “sensitive personal and government information,” according to Australia’s newly appointed National Cyber Security Coordinator.

Retail broker Openmarkets has paid the largest ever penalty handed down by ASIC’s markets disciplinary panel, with the regulator also banning its former trading head for three years.

Seven and law firm Herbert Smith Freehills have lost a bid to set aside subpoenas issued by Fairfax, as the publisher seeks third party costs orders against Seven for funding disgraced soldier Ben Roberts-Smith’s unsuccessful defamation case.

A judge has adjourned a trial in a case brought by junior doctors seeking to recoup alleged unpaid overtime, despite noting his annoyance over the applicants’ “180 degree turn” on the question of whether the hearing should await delivery of judgment in a related case.

A judge has found that preliminary discovery does not extend to information about the likely recovery of a claim, rejecting an argument that the relevant rule allows prospective plaintiffs to test whether litigation will be “worthwhile”.

The liquidators of construction giant Ralan have been given the go-ahead to pursue a former sales manager and his wife as well as the ATO with claims worth over $18 million, with a judge finding the collapsed company operated “a type of Ponzi scheme”.

GetSwift director Joel Macdonald still has not been served almost a year after his former Melbourne Demons teammate James Strauss filed a $15 million lawsuit against him, with a judge adjourning yet another substituted service application.