Judges

The husband of former Real Housewives of Melbourne star Venus Behbahani-Clark has told a court that his sister-in-law "happily" signed a deed giving his wife a $2 million Toorak townhouse.

The state of Victoria has been hit with a $500,000 judgment after three public servants were found negligent for failing to advertise Crown leases over Gabo Island and Tullaberga Island, a failure which has shut abalone fishers out of the area since 2019. 

The Full Court has rejected an appeal by the tax office over the classification of a redundancy payment, finding that an early learning centre worker who was offered reduced hours and pay as part of a restructure was made redundant.

A judge has ordered oil company Lighthouse to pay further security for costs in its $600 million case against the government of East Timor, a "hard fought contest" he said was unlikely to resolve ahead of trial.

A judge has thrown out a class action led by the father of famed mining investor Nathan Tinkler over claims ASX-listed Whitehaven Coal failed to fulfil an implied term of a $150 million share subscription. 

A former star of Real Housewives of Melbourne has denied altering text messages in a case alleging her sister gave her a $2 million Toorak townhouse in return for relinquishing her stake in a music production business.

A judge has struck out sections of natural gas exporter Australia Pacific LNG’s defence in Tri-Star’s long-running case over coal seam gas fields in Queensland, which centres on a $7.6 billion share sale to ConocoPhillips.

The tax office has won the appointment of special purpose liquidators to entities behind a number of Queensland construction projects, as it seeks to claw back a claimed $16 million debt.

A judge has upheld IAG’s privilege claim over a technical paper prepared by an actuarial consultant, finding that the report was not merely forwarded to the legal team to cloak it in privilege. 

McDonald’s has lost its bid to send a notice to group members foreshadowing its intention to apply for soft class closure in a representative case on behalf of 350,000 workers who were allegedly denied rest breaks.