Judges

Network Ten has won $2 million in costs against Bruce Lehrmann in his failed defamation case over the broadcaster’s coverage of Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations, after agreeing to a substantial haircut on its $3.7 million legal bill.

Five years after it was first hit with a competition case by Dialogue Consulting, Meta has filed a cross-claim against the Melbourne social media company, alleging it collects and stores Instagram user login credentials and instructs clients to provide inaccurate information to the platform.

Westpac has won its case against the owner of a fruit stand in Sydney’s Flemington Markets over a fraudulent scheme perpetrated using a $15 million invoice discounting facility provided by the bank.

Aldi has slammed what it says is a novel copyright infringement case alleging the German grocery chain copied the “vibe” of a rival’s snack packaging. 

Previously noting the rate was “well outside the median range”, a judge has made an order granting the second highest contingency fee to a law firm running a shareholder class action against vehicle company FleetPartners Group, saying he was satisfied the group costs order was appropriate and necessary.

Start-up Element Zero claims Fortescue did not disclose material information to the court when it obtained search orders in its case alleging “industrial scale misuse” of the mining company’s confidential information.

In a loss for the Australian Taxation Office, the Full Federal Court has found that payments made by Asahi Breweries-owned Schweppes to PepsiCo under agreements to sell brands such as Pepsi and Mountain Dew in Australia were not subject to a royalty withholding tax. 

A senior barrister who was ordered to provide itemised bills to explain four invoices totalling $800,000 has avoided a contempt of court finding, with a judge saying he was not satisfied the silk failed to comply with the orders and that if the extent of the itemisation were inadequate this was not the result of “disobedience”.

Five federal officers have dropped their defamation case against former ACT prosecutor Shane Drumgold over his complaint concerning their investigation into Brittany Higgins’ sexual assault claims against Bruce Lehrmann.

The liquidators of collapsed media company Big Un are pushing for a trial date in their two-year-old case against financier First Class Capital alleging a three million share purchase was part of a fraudulent design to inflate the collapsed company’s share price.