MinterEllison

Former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann has yet to engage lawyers to pursue his appeal of a judge’s finding that he raped colleague Brittany Higgins in Parliament House, but while he has the right to represent himself, experts have told Lawyerly it would be “very unwise” for him to run the case on his own.

Fortescue has brought legal action against start-up Element Zero and three former employees, alleging “industrial scale misuse” of the Western Australian mining company’s confidential information.

A judge has allowed a coal mine truck driver to bring claims as much as five years out of time against Mt Arthur Coal and Chandler Macleod over alleged bullying by a colleague, finding the delay in bringing the case was justified by a period of disability which left the worker “severely impaired in her capacity to pursue any litigation”.

MinterEllison’s Perth office has welcomed a new energy and resources expert from Dentons, fleshing out the firm’s Western Australian capabilities. 

Equitable contribution by Western Power, Ventia and a property owner found jointly liable for the same loss resulting from the Parkerville bushfire in WA must be mathematically equal regardless of how the liability was apportioned, a judge has found.

Victorian Liberal Party leader John Pesutto has settled two defamation lawsuits by organisers of the ‘Let Women Speak Rally’ and apologised for conflating them with neo-Nazis who crashed the event, saying his comments “could have more clearly differentiated between the groups”.

A court has granted an extension to the limitation period for a pelvic mesh patient suing her doctor for negligence, finding she did not have the knowledge to bring the case before the three-year window closed and that her claim for substantial damages for personal injury appeared “well founded”. 

The High Court had been asked to clarify the extent of protection for employers for genuine redundancies under the Fair Work Act, after an appeals court found the exemption was “not absolute”.

Jemena Gas has lost its bid for a court to determine a preliminary question in a case by billboard company Manboom that claims the presence of underground gas infrastructure at a site in Mascot, NSW that supplies gas to 1.6 million customers amounts to trespassing.

Tens of thousands of junior doctors who allege they were systemically underpaid have reached a $230 million settlement with NSW Health, the largest settlement ever in an underpayments class action.