Judges

Mercedes-Benz dealers have lost their appeal of a decision tossing their $650 million suit, with the Full Court backing the primary judge’s rejection of a "moralistic" approach to unconscionable conduct.

The Full Court has upheld the cancellation of a US sports merchandise company's 'Fanatics' trade mark, agreeing it knew about Australian AFL merchandise maker FanFirm’s trade marks when it chose its name. 

A member of the Waterhouse racing family has lost his court fight with a neighbour over planned renovations to the garage of his $26 million distinctive Sydney mansion.

Recently appointed NSW Supreme Court Justice Paul McGuire, who spent two years as a district court judge, has been lauded as the ideal candidate to star in training videos for new judges due to his courteous manner and restraint from performative flourishes.

A judge has ordered solicitors in a residential building spat to explain why costs orders should not be made against them, after they racked up sizeable fees for what she described as a small and simple dispute.

Aristocrat has lost its bid to question class action members about whether they have a gambling problem ahead of mediation, with a judge saying it called for “self-diagnosis” and would not yield reliable results.

The corporate regulator has appealed a Federal Court decision that rejected part of its case against HCF Life Insurance over a pre-existing condition term in its policies that was found to be misleading but not unfair.

In the third decision approving an unaltered group costs order at the resolution of a class action, a judge has OK'd an $85 million settlement by ANZ, representing a $21 million payday for Maurice Blackburn.

A judge has given the greenlight to a $10 million settlement with entities linked to late solicitor and Banksia class action mastermind Mark Elliott, noting the “perverse” difficulty of recovering more of the $70 million in assets held on trust.

Shinetec, the Australian arm of China’s Shanxi Construction Investment Group, has won orders restraining the developer of an abandoned $185 million project in NSW from accessing $48 million paid to it by Bank of China.