Judges

The Victorian government has elevated an Associate Justice who has overseen class actions and a senior counsel who assisted the Victorian royal commission into Crown Resorts to serve as judges on the Supreme Court of Victoria. 

A judge has removed two liquidators as administrators of a defunct company after finding they abused the court's processes by demanding $69 million in damages from the directors of water filtration business Billi.

A judge has approved a $22 million settlement in a class action on behalf of a First Nations community that alleges their land was contaminated by toxic firefighting foam at a military base in Jervis Bay, citing the “very real” risks the case would face at trial. 

Consumer goods giants Proctor & Gamble and Reckitt Benckiser have been urged by a court not to bury their dispute over marketing of a dishwashing tablet product under a mountain of competing performance tests.

A judge has approved a settlement with former directors of collapsed advisory firm Linchpin Capital under which insurer RiverStone will pay $6.3 million, which will be used to fund the investor class action’s claims against AIG.

A settlement with directors in an investor class action brought over the collapse of advisory firm Linchpin Capital is in the interests of group members, a judge has said.

A human rights group has told the Federal Court it will file for habeas corpus in a bid to compel the federal government to bring home Australians stuck in Syrian detention camps, with eight women, all Australian citizens, and 18 children being held in Camp Roj in the country’s northeast. 

A judge overseeing a $192.5 million settlement in an oil spill class action against PTTEP Australia on behalf of Indonesian seaweed farmers has balked at the “very large” costs sought by Maurice Blackburn for administering the deal, expressing concerns that class action costs are “getting out of control”.

A $47 million settlement in a class action against ANZ -- one of three settlements in a series of class actions against the big banks over 'junk' consumer credit insurance -- was fair and reasonable, a judge has said.

A judge has indicated he will approve settlements totalling $2.7 million reached with disgraced senior barrister Norman O'Bryan and a cost consultant retained by the legal team behind the Banksia class action fraud.