Rob Anderson

A judge has ordered Seven West-owned publication The West Australian to pay a former public servant $180,000 in damages over an article about an allegation of fraud that had “a sensationalist overtone”.

The minority shareholder in Sydney restaurant Machiavelli Ristorante Italiano has lost his bid to review the company books in anticipation of bringing a second winding up application, after the relationship between the restaurant’s co-owners broke down.

Accounting firm Ernst & Young is seeking to throw out a tax partner’s lawsuit alleging he remains in the partnership despite an attempt to remove him, arguing the dispute had to be determined through confidential arbitration. 

A group of Lloyd’s underwriters are off the hook for financial services company EP Financial Services’ costs in an lawsuit over allegedly negligent financial advice, after an appeals court found the exclusions under the policy were valid.

A former director of sandalwood producer Quintis, who is suing the company’s top brass over statements made to the corporate regulator, has won unrestricted access to legal advice the executives sought to keep a lid on.

A judge has partially struck out mining magnate Clive Palmer’s defence to WA Premier Mark McGowan’s defamation claim over statements which allegedly accused the premier of corruption, abusing his position and lying about the decision to close the state’s borders at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

Billionaire Clive Palmer cannot defend the truth of alleged defamatory imputations that Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan tried to “cover up” criminal acts and was “corrupt”, the premier’s barrister has told the court.

Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan has struck back at a defamation lawsuit by Clive Palmer, filing a counterclaim accusing the mining magnate of making a number of defamatory statements, including that he was a “liar” involved in “covering up” illegal activity.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission will have to face trial in a defamation lawsuit brought by a Queensland building and mortgage company over two media releases the corporate regulator issued in 2018 and 2019, after defeating a separate $10 million defamation case last year.

A prominent Queensland family has won almost $3.7 million in damages after a court found the Nine Network was “recklessly indifferent” to the truth of a 60 Minutes’ report alleging the collapse of a wall at the family’s quarry was to blame for floods that killed 12 people.