With truth on its side, Nine’s defeat of soldier Ben Roberts-Smith’s lawsuit was a huge win for investigative journalism in Australia, but while it might make lawyers blink before bringing defamation cases, the victory is not a game-changer, experts say.
The judge overseeing defamation cases brought by accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith will deliver his long-awaited findings next week, ruling on whether allegations of civilian murder in Afghanistan against the country’s most decorated living soldier are substantially true.
From the ongoing saga of the high-profile Christian Porter action against the ABC to “backyard” litigation testing the serious harm bar, defamation cases made headlines in 2022, with winners and losers alike shelling out millions to lawyers to protect their reputations.
The High Court won’t hear an appeal by payday loan providers Cigna and BHF seeking to challenge a Full Court judgment that found they can’t dodge the obligations contained in the National Credit Code through their lending model.
Liquidators have been appointed to a litigation funder behind a funding agreement ripped up by the court last year that would have given it a hefty 85 per cent commission.
Three AGL Energy subsidiaries have been ordered to pay $3.5 million in penalties for breaches of energy rules that led to a statewide blackout in South Australia.
ASIC has won an appeal of a judge’s decision that found Gold Coast-based payday lenders Cigno and BHF did not need a licence to issue loans to hundreds of thousands of consumers.
WA manufacturer Rock Tool Refurbishment Solutions has lost its bid to throw out patent infringement claims by global mining equipment company CME, with a judge saying he was not satisfied the allegations had no reasonable prospects of success.
Alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith has won a bid to call a troop commander known as Person 81 in his defamation trial against Fairfax Media, despite the media company’s objections.
Mining tool company Globaltech has lost its bid to delay Australian Mud Company’s case, on foot since 2016, which seeks $39.9 million in damages for its rival’s infringement of a mining tool patent.