Judges

A recent judgment that clarified the date for assessing best method knowledge for divisional patents appears to create new difficulties for patent applicants, lawyers say.

The family of the late pastoralist Thomas Brickworth is on the hook for damage caused by a 2021 bushfire, after an appeals court found it was reasonable to conclude that the fire originated from a vegetation heap that smouldered for months before catching fire. 

A judge has approved a $67 million settlement in a class action against QSuper but has trimmed the payout for the litigation funder, criticising it for a "brazen and unjustified" deduction that was dropped during the hearing.

It ditched a planned $627 million union, now US drug maker Cosette must pay more than $13 million toward Mayne Pharma's costs of the legal fallout. Whether it owes the "substantial damages" Mayne is claiming is an issue for another day.

An appeals court has shaved nine months off ex-investment banker Rodney Forrest's prison sentence for insider trading, after he accessed confidential information from the computer of Platinum Asset Management's chairman about a takeover offer.

A judge has stayed a judgment under the Security of Payment Act, finding that “exceptional circumstances” were not needed to justify such an order in light of a recent judgment that issued a rare stay of a SOPA determination.

The owners corporation of a 36-unit apartment block in North Sydney that has been locked in a long-running fight with the developers over defects has won $2.5 million after the parties settled on the eve of the trial.

Cosmetic surgeon Dr Daniel Lanzer wants to strip a case of class action status, arguing claims he and other doctors passed themselves off as plastic surgeons were not suitable for a group proceeding. 

Former NAB super fund trustee NULIS Nominees was able to charge $165 million in fees for paying adviser commissions after conflicted remuneration was banned in 2016, an appeals court has ruled. 

A developer linked to Keystone Asset Management has failed to persuade the Full Federal Court to exempt three family trusts from a $158 million freezing order.