Judges

A judge has signed off on a settlement in a class action by investors in failed advisory firm Linchpin Capital, with insurer AIG paying $12.15 million and forfeiting its right to appeal a liability finding.

A judge has said Sydney firm Atanskovic Hartnell’s garnishee order was “entirely unacceptable” in a long-running fee fight with its former client, a company owned by media mogul Bruce Gordon. 

A witness in the Ben Roberts-Smith case threatened to sue Nine and journalist Nick McKenzie, the Full Court has learned, as the former soldier seeks to reopen his appeal following the release of a secret recording of a conversation between McKenzie and the witness.

Lender WholeCap has lost its bid for a “break fee” and $430,000 in legal costs billed by King & Wood Mallesons associated with a term sheet for a proposed $66.1 million loan to a Harbour Land entity.

A court has clarified that BaptistCare Community Housing can use a social housing property in Five Dock to secure a loan from Housing Australia for improvements at the site. 

A court has allowed Ben Roberts-Smith to admit into evidence a secret recording of Nine journalist Nick McKenzie, as the former soldier makes a fresh bid to revive his failed defamation case.

The funder that backed a failed shareholder class action against an ex-Quintis director and EY is fighting a bid for a third-party costs order, arguing such orders shouldn't be imposed on funders where there is no doubt they will pay up.

It lost its bid in the NSW Supreme Court to withhold a payment claim from the builder of a 30-storey project in Sydney pending an appeal, now developer VSD Investments has asked an appeals court to halt payment.

Two Nine in-house lawyers, as well as senior editors and journalists, are facing a contempt of court bid by individuals who are the subject of a suppression order in journalist Antoinette Lattouf's unfair dismissal case against the ABC.

The Federal Court is in no rush to issue guidelines on the use of AI in court proceedings, as other courts have done, despite its wide adoption in the legal profession and uses that have already raised judges' hackles.