The Morrison government decision’s to enter into a contract with a subsidiary of Empire Energy for gas exploration in the Beetaloo Basin was an effort to “stymie” climate change litigation brought against the federal resources minister, a court has heard.
The Victorian Supreme Court will push ahead with a hearing for a group costs order in a class action by Arrium shareholders despite requests by the applicants that it be put off until after judgment is issued on the second-ever group costs order request.
Agricultural equipment supplier Agrison has been ordered to pay a $220,000 pecuniary penalty after admitting to misleading its customers about the terms of its tractor warranties.
Defence minister Peter Dutton has given evidence of his “hurt” at trial in a defamation case over a tweet accusing him of being a rape apologist, while the judge presiding over the hearing has warned lawyers for the tweeter to act as solicitors not “supporters”.
Chinese lender Aoyin must pay PricewaterhouseCoopers’ legal costs for a vacated trial after Aoyin’s eleventh hour decision to join Baker McKenzie to a $10 million cross-claim in a dispute concerning the accounting firm’s advice on its failed bid to launch the first Chinese incorporated bank in Australia.
Despite COVID-19 case numbers in Australia hitting historic highs and the threat of an economic recession, law firms are cautiously optimistic about their ability to weather the storm without redundancies or reductions in staff pay.
With the Delta variant of the coronavirus thrusting Australia’s largest cities back into a protracted lockdown, lawyers forced to return to remote work for the forseeable future are lamenting the renewed loss of colleague and client connections.
Herbert Smith Freehills this week escaped a cross-claim that its advice made it liable for the alleged losses of Arrium’s lenders, but the judge who tossed the claim along with the banks’ cases expressed doubts about one of the law firm’s key arguments, a warning to other firms caught up in litigation as so-called concurrent wrongdoers.
A judge has found PwC should face a claim that it engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct while assisting Chinese lender Aoyin with its planned launch in Australia by failing to properly advise the company there was a risk its shareholders did not comply with APRA’s ‘fit and proper’ requirement.
A judge has dismissed two cases brought by the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and other lenders against directors of the failed steel giant Arrium, saying he was not satisfied the directors’ representations on loan drawdown notices were false or that the company was insolvent when it went into voluntary administration in April 2016.