Katherine Richardson

A Sydney solicitor has lost his bid to summarily dismiss the legal watchdog’s case alleging he set up misleading crowdfunding pages seeking funding for class actions over government orders requiring mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations, as well as another class action that was never filed.

A judge has quashed the OAIC’s decision to reject a second class action-style complaint filed over the massive Optus data breach, finding the Privacy Act does not bar second-in-time proceedings. 

Commonwealth Bank of Australia and subsidiary CommSec have been hit with $10.34 million in penalties — the highest ever imposed in enforcement action by the workplace regulator — after admitting it underpaid thousands of employees more than $16 million.

The Council for the Law Society of NSW can seek disciplinary findings against a solicitor who was previously banned over social media posts encouraging people to flout COVID-19 mandates and representing that a judge condoned rape and murder.

Optus has lost its fight to keep a class action from accessing an independent report by consulting giant Deloitte into last year’s major data breach.

A judge has questioned an argument by Optus that a report by Deloitte into a major data breach was protected by privilege, saying a press release by the teleco’s boss belied the claim that the provision of legal advice was the report’s chief purpose.

The OAIC has been dragged to court by the law firm that filed a class action-style complaint over the massive Optus data breach, after the privacy commissioner chose a competing representative complaint to move forward.

CBA should pay a penalty of $12.8 million — close to the maximum penalty the court can impose on the bank — for underpaying its staff to the tune of $16.4 million, a judge has heard.

A class action against Optus over a cyberattack that left the data of up to 10 million customers exposed is seeking access to an independent report prepared by Deloitte into the causes of the hack.

A judge overseeing a class action over the Optus data breach will order the Information Commissioner to appear in court to explain the “delay and uncertainty” surrounding a number of representative complaints before the OAIC which are hampering the court proceedings.