Requests by litigants for judges to disqualify themselves from presiding over cases were largely denied last year, in a raft of decisions containing lessons for litigants weighing up their own recusal bids in 2023.
A Corrs Chambers Westgarth veteran known for his work defending the Catholic Church has left the law firm for rival Wotton + Kearney, taking with him a number of senior associates as well as the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne.
An appeals court has dismissed an appeal from two contractors who worked on Chevron’s Gorgon gas field project who allege they were underpaid over $130 million by the energy giant.
ASIC commissioner Sean Hughes will step down next month after taking a role with investment manager Vanguard – which paid a $40,000 fine to the corporate watchdog just last month.
The Albanese government is inviting submissions on a federal judicial commission tasked with dealing with alleged misconduct by judges, saying the commission will strive for transparency and will not adopt a disciplinary model.
Microsoft has won a pittance for copyright infringement but copped a “substantial costs order” in its six-year-old intellectual property suit against a Melbourne computer retailer over its Windows 7 software, which previously netted the Silicon Valley giant a $2.8 million payout from Judge Sandy Street that was slammed as a “regrettable” judicial failure.
Hancock Prospecting has lost a bid to shut down court cases brought by fellow mining giants Wright Prospecting and DFD Rhodes until the outcome of a family arbitration, after a judge found the company’s own forensic choices made the risk of inconsistent decisions inevitable.
A judge who previously acted for a United Petroleum Group company in a “highly acrimonious” case eight years ago has refused to recuse herself from adjudicating a new dispute involving a related company.
A prominent Melbourne lawyer and his wife have been restrained from acting in a property dispute, after a judge found they misled the court and facilitated a false settlement in favour of their clients.
A judge has dismissed a class action brought by a pensioner against the Department of Social Services over its real estate asset testing for pensions, citing his lack of legal representation.