Barristers

ASIC has won orders declaring that Gold Coast-based BHF Solutions and Cigno needed a credit licence to issue loans to hundreds of thousands of customers, after the High Court tossed a challenge by the payday lenders.            

A court has queried Nuix’s claim for $500,000 in discovery expenses in an unsuccessful suit by former CEO Edward Sheehy over share options, and has said the legal bill of Sheehy would be taken into account in calculating Nuix’s costs.

A judge has approved a $450 million penalty put forward by Crown Resorts and AUSTRAC despite reservations about evidence going to the casino operator’s financial position.

The judge asked to approve a proposed $450 million penalty in AUSTRAC’s case against Crown Resorts has questioned whether the practice of regulators settling enforcement action ahead of trial gave rise to a “moral hazard” problem.

Former SAS corporal Ben Roberts-Smith has filed an appeal after he lost his defamation case against Nine-owned Fairfax in a ruling that found he committed murder in Afghanistan and was not a reliable witness. 

The applicants in competing class actions against Downer EDI have set out their proposals for the courts overseeing the cases, with two calling for orders staying the proceedings of their rivals, and another seeking consolidation.

Willis Australia has won an appeal against its landlord, AMP Capital, with a court ruling the insurance broker is entitled to withdraw notice it gave in December 2019 to renew its office lease. 

A court has ordered Google to provide former Victorian Labor candidate Nurul Khan with account information and IP addresses relating to an anonymous email sent to the ALP last November, which led to his disendorsement by the party just two weeks before the state election. 

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.

Hancock Prospecting can’t challenge an order that documents produced in arbitration are fair game, as the mining company’s chief, Gina Rinehart, battles her children in a trial over ownership of a valuable tenement set to start Monday.