Judges

Two Commonwealth Bank of Australia subsidiaries have denied that they owed fiduciary duties to group members in a class action over allegedly excessive insurance premiums pushed onto customers because of commissions and other benefits to financial advisors.

A Sydney-based law firm is challenging a ruling that ordered it to pay $1.4 million in damages for failing to properly advise a client of his rights under a partnership agreement after he suffered several strokes.  

Clive Palmer and his company Mineralogy will have to press forward with their appeal of a judgment that found their lawsuit against Hong Kong-based CITIC was an abuse of process, after an appeals court dismissed the mining magnate's allegations of "sinister" conduct by CITIC.

The Australian Taxation Office has come up short in its challenge to a decision that a sole trader was eligible for Jobkeeper despite a cancelled ABN, with the Full Federal Court saying the small businessman was entitled to the government COVID-19 handout.

An appeals court has upheld a ruling that Qantas’ dispute with former executive Nick Rohrlach over his defection to competitor Virgin Australia should be heard in Singapore because it falls under an exclusive jurisdiction clause in his employment agreement.  

Insurer AIG Australia will have to pay collapsed diary processing firm Murray Goulburn at least $8.85 million after a court ruled it was liable to cover some of the costs of a $42 million class action settlement reached with irate investors last year.

A judge has ordered telecommunications reseller Superfone to pay a $300,000 penalty in proceedings brought by the ACCC for misleading customers and making unsolicited telemarketing phone calls, even though the penalty may push the company into insolvency.

A judge who oversaw a 39-day trial in 2018 in multiple class actions against S&P Global may be asked by the ratings agency to step down from hearing another class action alleging systemic defects in its ratings systems.

A class action by investors of collapsed Linchpin Capital against the company's former directors wants to join their insurers as defendants to the proceedings.

K&L Gates has fended off a mid-case bid for costs by former clients who are seeking $3 million in a negligence lawsuit and told a court on Wednesday they wasted money responding to a "defective defence" by the law firm.