Judges

A class action against Blue Sky Alternative Investments won't seek to transfer the case to contingency fee-friendly Victoria despite a High Court ruling that put the kibosh on solicitors' common fund orders. 

A court has found no legal error in a regulator’s decision to approve Woodside’s environmental plan for its Scarborough gas project in Western Australia, finding the company was not required to specify what would be an acceptable level of emissions.

The Queensland Commissioner of State Revenue has lost an appeal against the Montessori Children’s Foundation after it refused the organisation's bid to be registered as a charity to avoid property taxes.

Online trading platform IG Markets must pay over $5.5 million in damages to a customer, with a court finding a contract term that purportedly allowed it to reverse transactions made in error was unfair.

A judge has cut a 35 per cent contingency fee sought by a law firm running a shareholder class action against Origin Energy, even after a different judge approved the rate in a separate case by the firm.

Online trader Plus500 is seeking to stay a class action on behalf of investors who lost money trading in highly leveraged financial products, telling a court the applicant signed an agreement forcing the dispute into arbitration. 

Network Ten has attacked the “perversity” of ex-Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann’s argument that a judge's finding that he raped former colleague Brittany Higgins should be overturned because the trial judge did not accept every detail of Higgins’ account. 

A “unicorn” silk affectionately nicknamed the Ted Lasso of the Victorian Bar has been appointed to the Supreme Court at the age of 46, capping a rapid rise from commercial practice and class action work.

A judge has signed off on Macquarie Leasing's settlement in one of three class actions against lenders over flexible commissions paid to car dealers.

JB Hi-Fi has lost its bid for a hearing on a separate question in a class action over allegedly worthless warranties, with a judge saying the novel question has not been considered by the High Court and could lead to appeals.