Common fund orders are again under scrutiny in a class action which was at the centre of the High Court’s decision to strike down the orders, with a NSW Supreme Court judge sending back to the appeals court the question of whether the orders can be made at settlement.
A landmark judgment by the Full Federal Court has found that a full bench of the Fair Work Commission “misconstrued” its own authority to make general protections findings about the dismissal of employees.
The High Court has rejected an appeal challenging a ruling that found a failed political candidate liable for defamatory responses made by readers of two Facebook posts he published that labelled a South Australian businessman greedy and selfish, but the court has left the door open to weigh in on the issue of secondary publication of social media comments.
A judge whose conduct towards lawyers for a father in a Family Court case was condemned by an appeals court as “cruel, insulting, humiliating and rude” has been transferred to the Brisbane registry and has been ordered to receive judicial training on appropriate behaviour in court.
A custody battle in the Family Court will be reheard after an appeals court ruled the judge overseeing the matter was “hectoring, insulting, belittling, sarcastic and rude” to lawyers representing the father in the case.
Treasury Wine Estates has challenged a ruling that Maurice Blackburn did not breach its obligations by using material from a now settled class action against it to draft new class action pleadings.
A former Qantas customer service manager has appealed a ruling blocking her from pursuing a disability discrimination case against Maurice Blackburn alleging the law firm put pressure on her to settle her workers compensation case against the airline.
Mondelez has won its High Court challenge to a ruling on the method to be used for calculating workers’ personal days.
An appeals court has been urged to uphold a judge’s $125 million penalty against Volkswagen in the ACCC’s case over the car maker’s emissions cheating, with a court-appointed contradictor saying the judge was “starved” of the information he required to assess whether a $75 million agreement brokered by the consumer watchdog was reasonable.
The High Court has denied a special leave application by the former directors of defunct financial advisory Storm Financial, after the Full Federal Court upheld a ruling finding they had breached their duties to eleven vulnerable investors by providing an inappropriate, one-size-fits-all model of investment advice.