The High Court has done away with a rule that allowed self-represented lawyers to claim costs for legal proceedings, calling the exception an “affront to the fundamental value of equality of all persons before the law”.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has failed in its challenge to a ruling that dismissed its bid-rigging case over mining exploration licences involving Cascade Coal and the sons of jailed Labor politician Eddie Obeid.
Commodity trading and mining company Glencore has won a fight with the Australian Taxation Office over a $92 million tax bill related to copper purchased from a subsidiary operating the Cobar mine in NSW.
The Full Federal Court has shot down a challenge to a ruling denying horse vaccine maker Zoetis’ application for security for costs in an unfunded class action brought on behalf of horse owners alleging the company failed to warn about the potential side effects of the Hendra virus vaccine.
A firm owned by solicitor Mark Elliott has reached an agreement resolving a dispute with Treasury Wine Estates over the costs the firm should pay in a stayed class action against the winemaker.
A Sydney law firm has been ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation and restitution for breach of its fiduciary duties, after a former client successfully appealed a conflict of interest case.
Crown Resorts has been given the greenlight to challenge a court order allowing former employees to talk to lawyers for a class action over its business in China, but the class has another chance to make its case that the ruling should stand.
Concerns about duplicative costs in multiple class actions are better addressed by case management decisions aimed at cutting excessive expense, not by limiting the amount lawyers representing group members can spend, the Full Federal Court has said in dismissing an appeal by baby food maker Bellamy’s.
The barrister leading an appeal seeking to revive Quinn Emanuel’s fees for no service class action against AMP has criticised the approach taken in the landmark GetSwift ruling on competing class actions, saying it placed the court in the role of auctioneer and actually encouraged duplicative proceedings.
Bellamy’s has lost its appeals court battle to limit the costs incurred by lawyers jointly running two shareholder class actions against the baby food maker.