Barristers

On the first day of trial in parallel class actions and regulatory proceedings, the Fair Work Ombudsman panned the payment systems adopted by Woolworths and Coles for salaried managers, saying they were “entirely foreign” to the industrial award and that the supermarket giants had “no meaningful proper records” for overtime. 

Despite assurances, wealth manager Insignia Financial did not engage PricewaterhouseCoopers to review the performance of its ‘Buy Model” investment portfolio after an equities analyst complained it had been overstated, a court overseeing a shareholder class action trial has been told.

A judge has published his reasons for tossing Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation lawsuits over publications accusing him of war crimes, saying the former SAS corporal was not “honest and reliable”.

The parents of deceased fraudster Melissa Caddick will take $950,000 to move out of a multi-million dollar property in Sydney’s East, which will now be sold by receivers.

The ABC acted with malice when it aired Brittany Higgins’ defamatory National Press Club speech in full, and the broadcaster’s public interest defence won’t save it, accused rapist Bruce Lehrmann has said.

A judge has warned against a franchisee class action against Hogs Breath Cafe Australia remaining in limbo after the restaurant chain’s bid to toss the case was set back by the second applicant’s poor health. 

It was “fundamentally wrong” that AMP Financial Planning paid consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers significantly more to review a court-ordered remediation than was paid to customers who suffered loss after an adviser churned life insurance policies for higher commissions, a judge has said.

Westpac, Macquarie and ANZ are seeking class closure orders ahead of mediation in three class actions over flexible commissions schemes, telling a court hearing they will be “completely at sea” without a better idea of the class size.

The defendants in a trade mark infringement case by the Pokemon Company were the victims of identity theft and were wrongly named in the suit, a court has heard.

Apple can argue an Australian non-practicing entity that claims its patents for a remote entry system were infringed by the tech company’s Touch ID and Face ID technology are invalid because of a Hewlett Packard handheld device that was first sold in 2000.