Herbert Smith Freehills

Japanese company Hitachi has hit back at a lawsuit filed by the entity in charge of a $511 million waste-to-energy plant in Western Australia which accuses Acciona of withholding $38.6 million in bank guarantees, denying any joint liability with the Spanish infrastructure giant.

A judge has signed off on a $16 million settlement in a class action against Dixon Advisory, but the funder of a competing case that was stayed after losing a beauty parade has earned a fragment of the $1 million it sought from the resolution sum.

After a seven-year legal battle, a court has upheld the validity of Neurim Pharmaceutical’s patent for insomnia drug Circadin and ruled two generic drug companies infringed the intellectual property.

The entity in charge of a $511 million waste-to-energy plant south of Perth has filed a second lawsuit against Acciona, accusing the Spanish infrastructure giant of withholding $38.6 million in bank guarantees to use as leverage in unrelated disputes about the troubled project.

The NSW Court of Appeal has said it has no power to exclude group members who do not sign up to a class action from participating in a settlement, upholding a controversial decision that the Full Federal Court said was “plainly wrong”. 

A funder that bankrolled a class action that was stayed against Dixon Advisory has argued it should receive $969,000 from a $16 million settlement reached in the competing proceedings that went ahead, saying its costs were spent to protect group members’ interests.

Uber has hit back at claims that it engaged in corporate espionage by using a software program called SurfCam to lure drivers away from rival GoCatch, saying its actions could not be compared to burglary because the material it obtained was not confidential.

Lawyers at Herbert Smith Freehills panicked as their client Uber obfuscated a regulator’s investigation during an alleged unlawful conspiracy to launch illegal rideshare operations, a trial has heard. 

A judge has approved a settlement in a shareholder class action against livestock exporter Wellard that grants a 34 per cent cut for group members, saying that investors had agreed to the lawyers and funder receiving the “lion’s share”. 

The state of Victoria has won its bid to prevent lawyers for a class action over Victoria’s COVID-19 hotel quarantine debacle from proofing lay witnesses, ahead of a criminal trial against the Department of Health, which is due to start in May.