Justice John Griffiths

The NSW government can’t appeal a decision that denied its bid to subpoena the names of 2,316 registered group members in a class action over allegedly unlawful strip searches at music festivals. 

Insurers have won a challenge to a declaration that engineering firm CIMIC could make claims under policies for costs arising from corruption cases, including a $32 million class action settlement.

An appeals court on Tuesday questioned claims that a tribunal’s decision had the appearance of bias when it found a Sydney barrister guilty of professional misconduct for bringing allegedly unfounded claims against a solicitor.

Subcontractor EnerMech has won an appeal in its fight against Acciona over a $10 million progress payment for work on the Westconnex M4-M5 link, with an appeals court finding the question of whether EnerMech’s claim was a payment claim for construction work was a matter for an adjudicator, not the court.

An appeals court has found that a solicitor’s caveat over his bankrupt client’s property was valid, after the client agreed to mortgage his property as security for up to $100,000 in legal costs, saying it was the only binding costs agreement they had.

A court made valid orders for a Queensland solicitor to pay back $251,255 to the relative of a former client, an appeals court has found, saying that “exorbitant charging debases the reputation of the legal profession”.

A barrister is taking a dispute over his $320,000 bill to the High Court, but a judge has cast doubt on the appeal’s prospects of success.

Willis Australia has won an appeal against its landlord, AMP Capital, with a court ruling the insurance broker is entitled to withdraw notice it gave in December 2019 to renew its office lease. 

An appeals court has held that a Sydney solicitor can’t be sued for negligence for a failure to include a breach of contract claim in a building dispute, saying the lawyer was protected by advocate’s immunity because his decision was “intimately connected” with the litigation.

Commonwealth Bank and other lenders of failed steel giant Arrium have lost a second attempt to put two of the company’s directors on the hook for alleged misleading representations on loan drawdown notices ahead of its $2.8 billion collapse.