Law Firms

A judge has approved a $29 million settlement in a class action against Westpac over ‘junk’ consumer credit insurance, a deal that earns the bank’s customers at least $19.6 million. 

Insurer Atradius has lost its bid to keep under wraps information supporting its application to publicly examine three KordaMentha directors about their administration of the Arrium Group after a judge found it would not prejudice a similar bid in related proceedings. 

A judge has admonished a class action applicant over continuing delays in a four-year-old class action against NAB which he said “should not be allowed to languish any longer”.

Ashurst has poached two Gilbert + Tobin partners for its corporate team, as the firm expands its offering in the public and private M&A markets in Australia and abroad.

The growing use of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT could shake up the landscape of intellectual property laws in Australia, and novel questions posed by the technology are likely to be answered in the courts before regulators step in, lawyers say.

A judge has awarded $735,000 in damages to nine group members in a class action representing 200 former Royal Australian Navy sailors alleging the Department of Defence broke a promise to train them in engineering, finding they were owed compensation for the lost chance to earn higher wages.

A judge has declined to hear an interlocutory stoush about the scope of a shareholder class action against engineering company Worley before an upcoming trial, saying the case, which has been on foot since 2015 and was appealed to the High Court, needed “some finality”. 

Chobani has lost a dispute over the tax office’s recent decision to apply GST to the US yoghurt maker’s Flip range.

Monster Energy has lodged a Federal Court appeal after failing to block supplements retailer MuscleTech from registering a new logo that it alleges is similar to its own M claw mark. 

National Australia Bank has been revealed as one of HWL Ebsworth’s clients whose information was compromised when the law firm was hacked by a Russian-linked group.