Judges

Baby food maker Bellamy’s better have a good explanation for ditching settlement talks in a $400,000 sex discrimination lawsuit by former boss Tarsi Luo, a judge has warned.

A psychiatrist has reached a confidential settlement with Harper Collins in his defamation case over a book about the controversial deep sleep therapy at the Chelmsford Private Hospital in the 1970s.

Oil company Lighthouse Corporation has lost its bid to force East Timor to jump through hoops to access a suite of documents in a $328 million dispute over a failed fuel supply agreement, but has succeeded in keeping the documents out of public hands amid fears by its director for his safety.

A judge has cautioned two law firms running competing shareholder class actions over last October’s cyber attack on Medibank that they must keep their focus on the best interests of clients and group members, saying lawyers can lose sight of that duty when arguing for their case. 

A judge overseeing a shareholder class action against Insurance Australia Group says more evidence is needed to back the applicant’s bid for an order giving lawyers 30 per cent of any recoveries.

A court has imposed a $40 million penalty on Insurance Australia Limited in a case by the corporate regulator alleging NRMA customers were not paid $60 million in promised loyalty discounts.

The NSW government and the former developer of a stalled $2 billion Central Barangaroo development project are headed for a discovery showdown in their $270 million stoush, with both sides fighting to protect what they say are privileged communications.

A self-represented litigant locked in a legal battle with the ATO and Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions has won an appeal of a decision that set aside nine subpoenas she issued, including one to the Assistant Director of the CDPP, with the appeals court finding that the relevance of the evidence sought was enough to satisfy the application.

A judge has rejected TPG-owned Anew Climate’s bid for default judgment against an Australian company that allegedly impersonated a US carbon offset developer in order to unlawfully receive payments under a $1 billion deal, saying “it’s not hard” to make the application under the correct rule.

A Shine Lawyers class action over norovirus outbreaks on Carnival’s Sun Princess cruise ship has called an attempt to see documents outlining its strategy for the case “abusive” and “bizarre”, as the cruise operator continues its fight to have the suit struck out.