Judges

In a win for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, a court has found Dominique Grubisa’s DG Institute made misleading statements to students who paid up to $9,000 to enrol in her property investment and wealth management programs.

A hearing in a class action to determine the extent of lost sales suffered by cattle exporters following a ban on live exports has been set down for April next year, making the case the oldest unresolved class action on the Federal Court docket.

Sydney hospitality mogul Justin Hemmes has sued a Brisbane restaurant, Establishment 203, claiming it has breached its ‘Establishment’ trade mark and failed to carry out any searches before opening its business under the name. 

A judge has questioned the relevance of an ex-Seven producer’s “sordid” evidence that the network rewarded him after using company funds to buy sex workers for the accused rapist Bruce Lehrmann, saying both sides had made strong arguments against his and Brittany Higgins’ credibility. 

A judge has quashed a statutory demand by K&L Gates seeking $745,000 in fees from a former client, saying the law firm’s alleged debt included amounts owing its US counterpart, in currency converted to Australian dollars who knows when.

A judge hearing Bruce Lehrmann’s reopened defamation trial has expressed concern about evidence regarding non-parties to the lawsuit, including a solicitor who is said to have acted for Seven, saying “allegations are being thrown around like a gatling gun”.  

A judge who tossed a $650 million lawsuit by dealers against Mercedes-Benz has said he rejected a “value-laden” take by other judges on what amounts to unconscionable conduct, avoiding what he mockingly described as “putatively profound” propositions “dollied up in prettified prose”.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has been sued by an employee who alleges the accounting firm is vicariously liable for an alleged sexual assault by a co-worker after an end-of-financial-year work party.

Santos wants four activist organisations to hand up any communications with the Environmental Defenders Office over its unsuccessful challenge to the construction of a pipeline for the energy company’s $5.6 billion Barossa gas project, as it seeks to recover third-party costs against the legal centre for its conduct in running the proceedings.

The sole director of a small software company can’t act for his business in defending against an intellectual property case brought by digital titan Google, despite his plea to the court that his firm did not have the financial means to hire lawyers.