Barristers

Fox News CEO Lachlan Murdoch wants a court to decide before trial whether a Crikey article published last year that allegedly linked him to the US Capital riot was defamatory. 

A judge has sent the ABC away to rethink its truth defence to claims in a case brought by former Army major Heston Russell that alleges two articles in 2021 defamed him by suggesting among other things that he was involved in murdering an Afghan prisoner.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and Mazda have both lost their appeals in a case over the car manufacturer’s ‘appalling’ customer service, with three judges questioning the regulator’s decisions in how it ran the case.

App developers can be added as group members in class actions against Apple and Google alleging they engaged in anti-competitive conduct in operating their app stores, despite Apple’s concerns that the law firm running the case will owe conflicting duties. 

German pharmaceutical giant Bayer has slammed generic drug make Sandoz’s late bid for documents, which it called an attempt to “divert and distract” Bayer on the eve of a three-week trial over the patents for its top-selling blood clot drug Xarelto.

A judge has rejected a bid by The Project presenter Lisa Wilkinson to discover a 39,000-page AFP report outlining the contents of accused rapist Bruce Lehrmann’s phone, calling it “a classic fishing expedition.”

The law firm that ran a class action over the 2009 Montara oil spill must compete to administer a $192.5 million settlement, with a judge saying a tendering process is consistent with the court’s “protective and supervisory role” in managing costs deducted from class action settlements.

The owners of Mother energy drinks and Vittoria Food & Beverage have both lost their challenges to each other’s ‘Motherland’ and ‘Mothersky’ trade marks and are considering taking the long-running stoush to the High Court. 

A judge hearing a lawsuit by an ex-Greenwoods & Herbert Smith Freehills partner seeking $13 million in compensation from his former firm and Lendlease has ordered that the court first decide whether new whistleblower protections apply retrospectively.

A senior barrister who represented Mayfair 101 founder James Mawhinney in mediation of two cases last year has been allowed to appear against him at a hearing in another dispute against a lender and two McGrathNicol receivers, but the silk won’t participate in settlement talks.