Judges

Noumi has largely lost its bid to shield from a class action parts of its inhouse counsel’s evidence supporting a privilege claim over 3,000 documents seen by Ashurst and PricewaterhouseCoopers during an investigation into the company’s financial position.

Worley contravened the Corporations Act a decade ago when it failed to correct 2014 earnings guidance for several months, but shareholders in a long-running class action against the engineering services company have failed to prove the breach caused any loss, a judge has found.

A lip reading expert has given evidence of his interpretation of CCTV footage at a bar on the night Bruce Lehrmann allegedly raped Brittany Higgins, saying he “encouraged” her to finish drinks, a claim the former Liberal staffer has denied.

Senator Linda Reynolds’ former chief of staff Fiona Brown has told a court she refused directions from two ministers to make a report to federal police, saying Brittany Higgins had not yet alleged she was sexually assaulted by fellow Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann and that the ministers were “covering themselves”.

A judge has found that a lawsuit against the state of NSW over hundreds of allegedly illegal strip searches conducted by NSW police at music festivals over a six-year period should move forward as a class action.

A judge has rejected a top orthopaedic surgeon’s bid to uncover the names of 13 sources who gave information to a Nine journalist, preferring the public interest in protecting the sources’ identities and noting their fears of reprisals by the Sydney surgeon. 

The judge overseeing Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial against Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson has rejected a bid by the former chief of staff to then defence minister Linda Reynolds to avoid giving evidence on the basis of “harm it may cause to her health conditions”. 

The former chief of staff for MP Linda Reynolds has denied that Brittany Higgins disclosed an alleged sexual assault to her in March 2019.

Two law firms running competing class actions against Qantas over flight cancellations during the COVID-19 pandemic have agreed to cooperate after a judge took them to task for revising their funding positions in the lead up to a courtroom battle.

Acciona has prevailed in a fight with subcontractor EnerMech over a $10 million progress payment, which a judge found was instead an attempt by EnerMech to claim a credit in relation to security paid to Acciona.