Industries

Editors and journalists from Australia’s largest news organisations have protested recent changes to the Federal Court Rules that restrict the public’s access to documents filed with the court, calling it a “full-frontal assault” on open justice. 

A Boeing Defence instructor who was sacked for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccination has won an unfair dismissal case, with the Fair Work Commission finding it was “harsh and unreasonable” for Boeing to fire him while he was in the running for another role at the company.

Three class action law firms have joined forces to run a landmark data breach complaint against Medibank, seeking compensation for up to 9.7 million affected customers. 

Microsoft has won a pittance for copyright infringement but copped a “substantial costs order” in its six-year-old intellectual property suit against a Melbourne computer retailer over its Windows 7 software, which previously netted the Silicon Valley giant a $2.8 million payout from Judge Sandy Street that was slammed as a “regrettable” judicial failure.

Mining company Downer EDI has won its bid to review documents between Alinta Energy and a superintendent who allegedly acted improperly in a spat over a $208 million solar gas hybrid project in the Pilbara region. 

Hancock Prospecting has lost a bid to shut down court cases brought by fellow mining giants Wright Prospecting and DFD Rhodes until the outcome of a family arbitration, after a judge found the company’s own forensic choices made the risk of inconsistent decisions inevitable.

An Adelaide digital printing firm has brought a case against two healthcare companies in the United States, challenging a patent for producing 3D printed, artificial cadavers used in medical training and research. 

A judge who previously acted for a United Petroleum Group company in a “highly acrimonious” case eight years ago has refused to recuse herself from adjudicating a new dispute involving a related company.

A prominent Melbourne lawyer and his wife have been restrained from acting in a property dispute, after a judge found they misled the court and facilitated a false settlement in favour of their clients.

In reasons for approving a $41 million deal to settle one of three shareholder class actions over Slater & Gordon’s acquisition of a UK firm and awarding the funder 28 per cent, a judge has challenged a persistent notion that the interests of litigation funders and group members are at odds.