Judges

In allowing Seven and chairman Kerry Stokes to challenge a ruling granting Fairfax access to 8,600 emails with accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith’s legal team, a judge has said they will suffer prejudice if “personally embarrassing” communications are put into evidence. 

A traditional custodian has won her bid to halt seismic blasting for Woodside’s Scarborough gas project off the coast of Western Australia, in a legal challenge similar to one that put Santos’ $4.7 billion Barossa project on ice.

A judge has ordered lawsuits by Fortnite owner Epic Games against Apple and Google to be heard together with class actions against the tech giants on behalf of app developers and customers who accuse them of distorting competition in the app marketplace.

Sanofi has lost its bid to limit evidence from experts for Amgen in a patent dispute over a cholesterol-lowering antibody, with a judge dismissing concerns about Amgen having a majority of experts giving concurrent evidence. In an application filed at the beginning of the month, the French pharmaceutical company sought to bar Amgen from relying…

A retiring judge whose career has included oversight of some of Victoria’s biggest cases has called for reforms to the judicial appointments process to address delays in filling vacancies and gaps in the due diligence of nominees to the court.

The firm and funder that ran a shareholder class action against Ardent Leisure over the 2016 Dreamworld tragedy are seeking deductions totalling more than half of the $26 million settlement reached in the case.

AMP has appealed its loss in a class action over changes to its buyer of last resort policy, under which the wealth manager slashed the amount it would pay financial advisers for their books of business.

The Office of the Special Investigator has been granted access to sensitive evidence in Ben Roberts-Smith’s unsuccessful defamation case against Fairfax for its investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan. 

A former top judge appointed to decide the first-ever contest to administer a class action settlement has set out his criteria for making the choice, and has warned that giving the firm running a case a monopoly right to dole out the proceeds could lead to higher costs for group members and poorer settlement outcomes.

The law firm representing the wife of the late AFL player Shane Tuck in a class against the Australian Football League on behalf of players who allegedly suffered brain injuries is seeking court approval to discontinue the case for lack of litigation funding.