Network Ten has won $2 million in costs against Bruce Lehrmann in his failed defamation case over the broadcaster’s coverage of Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations, after agreeing to a substantial haircut on its $3.7 million legal bill.
In a loss for the Australian Taxation Office, the Full Federal Court has found that payments made by Asahi Breweries-owned Schweppes to PepsiCo under agreements to sell brands such as Pepsi and Mountain Dew in Australia were not subject to a royalty withholding tax.
A judge has ordered Transport for NSW to only pay 65 per cent of the costs of a class action over Sydney’s $3 billion light rail construction, finding it was not inappropriate to apportion costs even though the plaintiffs were largely successful.
The United Firefighters Union has lost an appeal of two Fair Work Commission decisions, with the Full Federal Court finding that a commissioner did not err in deciding the matter at a later time.
A judge has refused to allow an owners corporation to serve late expert evidence in its case against developer Mirvac over alleged defects in a Sydney apartment complex, saying a solicitor’s explanation about “competing commitments” was inadequate and “a circumstance shared by most members of the legal profession”.
The Full Federal Court has dismissed an appeal by human rights group Save the Children, which sought to bring home Australians stuck in Syrian camps, rejecting as “mere conjecture” claims that Home Affairs had a repatriation arrangement with an authority in Syria.
A judge has rejected claims that an investor in the Callide power station, which suffered a major failure in 2021, was responsible for delays in the administration of the station’s operator IG Power, saying the administrators’ ten month delay in investigating the incident was to blame.
A former Queensland prosecutor has had his name struck from the roll after committing several drug offences, despite a judge finding the crimes were linked to post-traumatic stress disorder he developed from exposure to child exploitation material at work.
An IP Australia delegate has shot down Apple’s application to patent a touchscreen interface used on its electronic devices, calling the invention a “logistical scheme” for organising media files rather than a technological innovation.
A report into an explosion at a major Queensland power station that left nearly half a million people without power is not protected by legal professional privilege, with a judge finding public statements about the report show it was not commissioned for the dominant purpose of providing legal advice.