Perry Herzfeld

In a landmark ruling, the High Court has recognised the availability of damages for psychiatric injury caused by an employer’s negligent dismissal process, restoring a $1.4 million award to a former non-profit employee. 

A judge has overturned energy minister Chris Bowen’s refusal to greenlight energy company Seadragon’s offshore wind farm project off the coast of Gippsland.

A Sydney barrister and solicitor have settled a dispute over a $320,000 bill initially estimated to cost $60,000 after an appeals court found two costs agreements were void and held that courts should take a “purposive approach” to the rules governing costs disclosure obligations. 

In submissions to the High Court, the applicant in a class action brought on behalf of Arrium shareholders against KMPG has attacked the Attorney-General’s argument that a contingency fee order is a neutral factor in assessing the accounting firm’s bid to move the case from Victoria. 

The NSW Supreme Court would have the power to deal with a contingency fee order made in a class action against KPMG if the accounting firm won its application to move the case from Victoria, making the existence of the order a neutral factor in the transfer bid, the federal Attorney-General has told the High Court.  

A judge has granted leave to law firm Levitt Robinson to challenge a ruling cutting $1.14 million of its fees from a settled class action against retirement home operator Aveo, finding the appeal was sufficiently arguable.

Seeking leave to challenge a decision that shaved $1.14 million from its costs in running a class action against Aveo, Levitt Robinson has argued the firm would have enjoyed a right of appeal if it had been joined to the case as it ought to have been.

Supporting KPMG’s bid to move a class action over the collapse of Arrium from Melboure to Sydney, former directors of the failed steel company have told the High Court the Victoria Supreme Court was impermissibly preferring the policy of its state in finding a contingency fee order made in the case could be factored into a transfer application.

The attorney-general of South Australia wants to intervene in a High Court appeal of a ruling that put Judge Salvatore Vasta on the hook for a man’s false imprisonment, saying the judge was not entitled to immunity but that police and correctional officers were.

The Full High Court will sit for the hearing of KPMG’s battle to transfer a Victoria class action to Sydney, as the applicant in the case raises a question as to the constitutional validity of the firm’s argument that the NSW Supreme Court is bound to keep a group costs order operative.