Judges

A judge has approved a $5 million settlement in a false imprisonment class action against the state of Victoria on behalf of residents of nine public housing towers over COVID-19 lockdowns, despite noting it “falls towards the lower end of the spectrum”.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has succeeded in overturning a defamation judgment requiring her to pay $250,000 in damages to former colleague Brian Burston, with the Full Federal Court finding an allegation of sexual abuse against Burston was substantially true.

Deloitte has settled a shareholder class action over its audits of collapsed construction group Hastie, a case which dragged on for six years as the accounting firm unsuccessfully fought to shield its audit reports.

A class action against Carnival over norovirus outbreaks on its Sun Princess cruise ship has defeated the cruise operator’s second strike out bid, with a judge saying the failure to identify what exactly went wrong “may not be fatal” to the case.

Seven Network and owner Kerry Stokes are seeking to challenge a ruling ordering them to produce thousands of emails exchanged with Ben Roberts-Smith’s legal team as Nine tallies its costs of successfully defending the former soldier’s defamation action.

Qantas has succeeded in attacking claims that it created a workplace that was “hostile to women”, leveled in a former female pilot’s sex discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit.

A court has found the managing director of teahouse franchise Chatime liable for the underpayment of staff, despite accepting that he believed the company’s wage system was not unlawful.

A judge who previously described as a “schemozzle” a law firm’s attempt to drop a class action over Telstra’s COVID-19 vaccine policy has refused a bid to keep secret Clive Palmer’s involvement as funder of the aborted litigation.

IG Markets has been hit with a second class action for offering “highly risky and unsuitable financial products” to retail investors, with a third competing proceeding in the works.

A Blue Sky director has pointed the finger at auditor Ernst & Young in a class action alleging the collapsed investment firm misled shareholders by misstating its assets under management.