Judgment

A judge has ordered online bookmaker Entain and the Australian Hotels Association to hand over legal advice concerning their agreement to advertise digital wagering products in NSW pubs so that Tabcorp can decide whether to bring a case. 

The wife of the late mining executive Ken Talbot wanted to “destroy” the law firm that advised her husband about his will, a court has found in awarding costs against the widow.

A judge overseeing a security dispute in a shareholder class action against KPMG and former directors of Arrium has found that potential profits to the plaintiff law firm running the case under a group costs order is not relevant to determining the quantum of security for costs.

Convenience store giant 7-Eleven has lost its appeal of a $595,000 judgment handed down after a court found a franchisee signed a franchise agreement and invested almost $796,000 into a Melbourne store under false pretences.

The fees of a class action firm found to have breached cost disclosure rules in running two underpayments class actions against supermarket chain Romeo’s have been adjusted up, after $260,000 was initially cut from the bill by the Federal Court.

A class action against Bayer over its Essure contraceptive has lost a bid to knock out the pharmaceutical giant’s defence that argues any defects in the device could not have been discovered given the state of scientific knowledge at the time the implants were sold in Australia.

A judge has shaved $80,000 off the damages recently awarded to a Papua New Guinea politician who sued Fairfax Media over a series of articles published in the Australian Financial Review, after finding she wrongly discounted a mitigation defence by the publisher.

A law firm has won its second bid for a group costs order in three class actions against banks over flexible commission schemes after a judge in 2021 rejected what was then the first-ever application for a contingency fee.

A decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal that reproduced almost entirely verbatim and without attribution the submissions of the prevailing party as its own reasons damages the public’s trust in the AAT and must be overturned, a court has ruled.

Advanta Seeds has won an appeal upholding the dismissal of a class action by sorghum farmers over allegedly contaminated seeds, with a court finding that the seed producer’s duty of care was negated by clear disclaimers.