Judgment

A High Court majority has found self-represented law firms can recover costs for their solicitors’ work, but in dissent two judges said the ruling effectively restored an exception scrapped five years ago.

AAI has lost its bid to appeal an order joining it to a class action over alleged combustible cladding installed at two high-rise towers in Liverpool, NSW. 

A tribunal has refused to order a contractor to remove external sunscreens on Meriton’s 70-storey Infinity Tower in the Brisbane CBD, despite finding they were made of combustible aluminum composite panels.

The High Court has dismissed an appeal of a finding that a successor trustee owes no fiduciary duty to a former trustee to preserve an entitlement to indemnification.

A lawyer who included ‘hallucinated’ citations from ChatGPT in material submitted to the court in a migration appeal has been referred to the NSW Legal Services Commissioner.

Commercial property firm DTZ Worldwide has lost its bid for $243 million in damages related to its acquisition of United Group from UGL Limited over United’s alleged failure to disclose that a key contract was “loss-making”. 

A judge has approved a $3 million settlement in a class action against Nine over its coverage of litigation related to the 2004 Palm Island riots. 

An appeals court has overturned a ruling that HWL Ebsworth invalidly expelled a capital partner in 2020 and rejected claims the firm improperly sought to exclude him from a proposed IPO. 

Despite failing a second time to make the deadline, Advanta Seeds has won an extension to pay a renewal fee for its patent for a lucrative hybrid canola plant cell.

An advertising exec has won the green light to build a two-storey residence on Sydney’s Tamarama headland, despite the council’s concerns that ten stone “cocoon” structures will “loom over” the iconic Bondi to Bronte coastal walk.