Judges

The Full High Court will sit for the hearing of KPMG’s battle to transfer a Victoria class action to Sydney, as the applicant in the case raises a question as to the constitutional validity of the firm’s argument that the NSW Supreme Court is bound to keep a group costs order operative. 

The judge overseeing Bruce Lehrmann’s failed defamation case against Network Ten has slammed as misleading comments that his judgment vindicated the broadcaster, and questioned whether the remarks disentitled it to maximum defence costs.

Bruce Lehrmann has been given extra time to file any appeal of a ruling he raped colleague Brittany Higgins but in the meantime the former political staffer must hand over information on who funded his defamation case against Network Ten, which is likely to see him on the hook for millions of dollars in costs.

Casino gaming giant Aristocrat may sue competitor Light & Wonder and two former employees who jumped ship for allegedly misusing confidential information about its popular Lightning Link and Dragon Link games to develop a competing product.

The litigation funder that bankrolled a patent infringement case by a vehicle monitoring systems manufacturer is on the hook for legal costs after technology company SARB succeeded in appealing a finding that it infringed the IP for a parking detection system used by the City of Melbourne. 

Two law firms behind underpayments class actions against Kentucky Fried Chicken have dodged a contest to run the litigation, agreeing to join their cases alleging the fast food giant denied tens of thousands of workers rest breaks.

One Nation senator Pauline Hanson has been accused of lying under oath after claiming she did not know deputy Greens leader Mehreen Faruqi was Muslim when she wrote in a a tweet that the senator should “piss off back to Pakistan”. 

Brittany Higgins’ partner David Sharaz has dropped his defence in a defamation case brought by Senator Linda Reynolds over social media posts that allegedly implied the former Defence Minister pressured Higgins not to pursue a complaint against rapist Bruce Lehrmann.

Jemena Gas has lost its bid for a court to determine a preliminary question in a case by billboard company Manboom that claims the presence of underground gas infrastructure at a site in Mascot, NSW that supplies gas to 1.6 million customers amounts to trespassing.

A judge has rejected a bid to keep the settlement sum under wraps in a class action against Nine over its coverage of litigation related to the 2004 Palm Island riots, noting that a “ballpark” figure is already open to be deduced from the settlement deed.