A former employment partner at Norton Rose Fulbright may ask a Federal Court judge to recuse himself from a long-running dispute with the law firm, saying the judge’s previous comments had triggered a “reasonable apprehension” of bias.
A lawyer for Geoffrey Rush told a judge Wednesday that the Sydney Theatre Company did not commence an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by Geoffrey Rush until 18 months after an actress made the complaint during a “off-the-record” conversation in a bar.
Geoffrey Rush’s legal team plans to question his King Lear co-star over a break-up with her partner, arguing the actress at the centre of a defamation case might have been distressed by the relationship split, not by any allegedly inappropriate behaviour by the Oscar-winning actor.
A subsidiary of building materials giant Boral was fined $30,000 Wednesday after threatening to sack its entire workforce for voting down proposed changes to an enterprise agreement to comply with the building watchdog’s code.
A judge on Thursday struck out former Prime Minister Mark Latham’s defence in a defamation case filed against him by the political editor of pop culture site Junkee, calling it an “extraordinary document” and the “antithesis of a pleading”.
Fundraising company Appco Group Australia has failed in its bid to put a massive sham contracting class action in the Federal Court on hold while it fights a ruling that let the case continue as a representative proceeding.
The corporate watchdog has won special leave to appeal to the High Court a ruling that found a general store owner in outback South Australia who sold cars by “book up” had not acted unconscionably.
The Full Federal Court will hear arguments next week in an appeal by the ACCC over an alleged laundry detergent cartel, the first so-called hub and spoke case brought by the competition regulator.
The publisher of The Daily Telegraph has won its bid to bring a defence of justification against claims by actor Geoffrey Rush that the newspaper defamed him in articles alleging the actor behaved “inappropriately” during a production of King Lear at the Sydney Theatre Company.
The lead applicant in an investor class action against Fitch Ratings will get its hands on internal reports detailing why the agency assigned a Triple A rating to Sigma Finance Corporation ahead of its 2008 collapse, and whether it could have predicted the fall of the $27 billion investment fund.