Barristers

Adani subsidiary Carmichael Rail has lost its High Court challenge seeking to have a dispute over damaged steel rails heard in Australian Federal Court rather than by an arbitrator in London.

The Project presenter Lisa Wilkinson has told a court that she begged Network Ten to admit its role in a controversial Logies speech for which she faced criticism in the media, as she pushes to have the network cover her costs in defamation proceedings brought by Bruce Lehrmann.

A senior lawyer at Network Ten has told the court she was not embarrassed by legal advice given to Lisa Wilkinson in relation to her controversial Logies speech and denied she was “utterly ill-equipped” to play a role in Wilkinson’s defence, amid a stoush between the network and the presenter over her legal bill in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case. 

Fast food giant KFC has served its defence in a class action alleging workers were deprived of their rest break entitlements, saying its obligation to provide the break was satisfied if staff were given the chance to stop work but chose not to.

Group members in a shareholder class action against livestock exporter Wellard will get 34 per cent of a $23 million settlement if the court approves deductions sought by the funder and law firm that ran the case.

Technology company SARB has partially succeeded in a challenge to a ruling that it infringed a rival’s intellectual property in its development of a parking system used by the City of Melbourne, with an appeals court finding a judge made an error in his reading of the claims of one patent at issue.

Hospitality giant Merivale has agreed to settle an underpayments class action alleging it failed to pay workers amounts owed for overtime hours worked.

Federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek wrongly focused on the net effect of approving an application by MACH Energy and Whitehaven Coal to extend two mega coal mines in New South Wales, an advocacy group has told an appeals court.

Suncorp subsidiary AAI has asked a court to order soft class closure in a group proceeding over allegedly worthless insurance, saying it was “passing strange” that over 200,000 group members “don’t know they’re even group members” three years into the case. 

The former director of collapsed investment advisor Linchpin Capital hit hardest by a judgment disqualifying him and three other directors and levying a combined $390,000 in penalties has filed an appeal.