Barristers

A judge has hit BlueScope Steel with a $57.5 million penalty for engaging in attempted cartel conduct and ordered a former executive to personally pay a $575,000 penalty.

A franchisee class action against United Petroleum over the installation of allegedly loss-making Pie Face stores at its franchise sites is fighting two applications for security for costs which it says can’t be met, as funders take little interest in the case.

A judge has said that an underpayments class action’s challenge to hospitality giant Merivale’s argument that it does not owe back wages because it relied on an enterprise agreement it believed was valid should be heard before trial. 

The field of competitors in a four-way contest to run a shareholder class action against Downer EDI over a $40 million profit overstatement has narrowed with the consolidation of three cases, leaving one firm to face criticism over its comparative inexperience running group proceedings. 

The judge hearing a trial in defamation cases by former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann against TV broadcasters ABC and Ten has said he expects both Lehrmann and alleged rape victim Brittany Higgins to take the witness stand.

A psychiatrist who gave expert evidence in a lawyer’s human rights case against his former employer cannot be sued for negligence because he is protected by witness immunity, a judge has found. 

A self-represented aged pensioner has lost his bid to revive a class action against the Department of Social Services over its real estate asset testing for pensions, with a judge saying that a legal practitioner must represent group members. 

A former Qantas customer service manager can’t undo a $75,000 settlement she reached to resolve a workers compensation claim in order to pursue a discrimination suit against the airline, a court has found.

A judge has blessed a $132.7 million settlement and a $33 million common fund order in a class action over toxic firefighting foam, saying he was “not vexed” by whether he had power to grant the funder’s payout despite the Full Court having reserved on the contentious issue. 

NAB will fight a bid by a $78 million class action over the collapse of Walton Construction to add serious fraud allegations in the four-year-old case, which a judge said has been “mired in a procedural mess”.