Law Firms

A woman who secured a $650,000 settlement from Coles after allegedly slipping on water at a Penrith, NSW supermarket may see just over five per cent of the sum after fees by the two law firms that represented her, as well as deductions by Medicare and Centrelink, a judge has said.

National Australia Bank has lost its bid to shield a case by a Melbourne gold bullion dealer after a judge said one of the bank’s arguments for suppression had “the air of a Kafka novel”.

The current owners of vitamin giant Nature’s Care have lost a bid to extend an urgent injunction against the company’s founding family amid fears they were trying to regain control of the corporate group, with a judge finding the family may faced oppressive conduct themselves.

Shareholders of New Zealand construction giant Fletcher Building have told a court that late claims in their class action over alleged misleading 2017 profit forecasts are not time barred because knowledge of the allegations was not discoverable before the case was filed.

A nose job patient who allegedly defamed his surgeon has been slugged with $50,000 in security for his appeal, on top of a $50,000 damages bill that a judge said the surgeon is unlikely to see.

King & Wood Mallesons has snagged an industrial relations and employment law ace from Clayton Utz, who collaborated with the Attorney-General on implementing the recent Respect@Work reforms.

REST Super faces a class action alleging the supererannuation trustee deducted premiums for income protection insurance that provided no benefit to members.

Queensland power company Stanwell has flagged a possible ‘no case to answer’ submission in an upcoming competition class action trial that would seek to shut the case down mid-trial, with a judge saying it was “highly unlikely” to succeed. 

Newly released emails show a prominent silk describing Brittany Higgins’ refusal to assist Lisa Wilkinson’s barrister Sue Chrysanthou as “at the least unwise”, amid a dispute over the TV presenter’s decision to hire her own legal team in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case. 

The maker of Finish dishwashing products, RB Hygiene, has won a partial appeal in a trade mark stoush with rival Henkel, with the Full Court reviving two of its trade marks but rejecting its challenge to a logo for competing Somat-branded products.