Judges

The corporate regulator is appealing a judgment that tossed its landmark action against Austo & General Insurance, saying the judge erred in construing an unclear and disproportionate term in the insurer's house and contents policy.

A judge has shut down a case by Icon against Australia's nuclear agency over the $27 million construction of a waste treatment plant at Lucas Heights, saying the dispute should be determined by an arbitrator despite the parties waiving pre-arbitration steps.

A judge has signed off on a $16 million settlement in a class action against Dixon Advisory, but the funder of a competing case that was stayed after losing a beauty parade has earned a fragment of the $1 million it sought from the resolution sum.

After a seven-year legal battle, a court has upheld the validity of Neurim Pharmaceutical’s patent for insomnia drug Circadin and ruled two generic drug companies infringed the intellectual property.

Judges experience extreme levels of stress and secondary trauma, exacerbated by public comment that is often ignorant of what the job entails. The transparent approach taken by the judge presiding over the Bruce Lehrmann case may help pave the way to alleviating some of that stress, but more needs to be done, experts say.

The NSW Court of Appeal has said it has no power to exclude group members who do not sign up to a class action from participating in a settlement, upholding a controversial decision that the Full Federal Court said was “plainly wrong”. 

The plaintiffs in two competing class actions against Mercedes-Benz over alleged defeat devices designed to cheat regulatory emissions tests have agreed to temporarily stay the first-filed proceeding so that one filed over a year later can go ahead, a court has heard. 

The Full Court has clarified that a prior bad reputation is relevant to determining whether a defamation plaintiff has suffered serious harm, tossing an appeal by a Sydney lawyer who lost her case over an article related to her conviction for an alleged $16,000 scam at David Jones, which was later overturned.

Sydney stockbroker Adam Blumenthal has been ordered to pay close to $1 million after admitting to market rigging and breaching his duties as director of two companies -- including by arranging a $7 million loan to 'ASX Wolf' Tyson Scholz.

At some point during the two hours Justice Michael Lee held court on Monday, 45,000 viewers were tuned in to the livestream. What they witnessed as he pronounced judgment against Bruce Lehrmann was arguably the vindication of Network Ten and some measure of justice for Brittany Higgins, but not only that. What they saw was a judge at the top of his game.