Lawyers running the scandal-ridden Banksia class action have been struck from the roll of practitioners, will face criminal investigation and must pay group members $11.7 million in damages.
It has been described as the darkest chapter in Victoria’s legal history, an exemplar of all that is terrible with class actions in Australia. A case of greedy lawyers who found their golden egg in a group of retirees who had lost their life savings, never thinking the chickens might come home to roost. Until now.
An appeals court hearing the case of a barrister who allegedly made a sexual comment to a clerk while intoxicated at a dinner following a legal industry event has questioned how a professional reprimand can serve a protective purpose if the person remains unnamed.
The Victorian Bar has urged barristers to remain vigilant and get vaccinated against COVID-19 after Owen Dixon Chambers East was named as an exposure site.
Trial judges should not communicate with barristers outside of court, the High Court has ruled in a “troubling” case of apprehended bias that saw a divorcee’s counsel socialising with the judge presiding over her long-running and “tortured” Family Law case.
A Sydney solicitor accused of stealing over $130,000 from a client and doctoring five invoices has lost a bid to pause the NSW Law Society’s suspension of her certificate after a judge found there was a “very significant” risk of harm to the public if she continued to practice.
After more than a year-and-a-half of virtual trials, Australia’s barristers have adapted and come up with the best techniques to maintain an edge when cross-examining witnesses in the virtual courtroom.
Slater & Gordon has been hit with a lawsuit filed by a former client who alleges the plaintiffs law firm’s conduct prevented him from suing the federal government for psychiatric injuries suffered at the Manus Island refugee processing centre.
As Australia’s largest cities prepare to emerge from lockdown, law firms are doubling down on their efforts to vaccinate staff, with some going so far as to implement a ‘no jab, no office’ policy.
A property developer suing law firm Sparke Helmore in a $1 million negligence suit has resisted a bid for $215,000 in security for costs made weeks ahead of a four-day hearing in the matter, calling the sum “excessive”.