Payouts in class actions in 2020 largely kept pace with the previous year despite the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, with companies and other defendants paying more than $696 million to settle class actions last year.
A Brisbane-based law firm is being sued by a paralegal who claims she was forced to take a 20 per cent pay cut during the COVID-19 pandemic on the basis of misleading statements by the firm’s director.
Billionaire Clive Palmer has offered to withdraw his High Court contempt of court lawsuit against Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan “in a spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness”, but his defamation case against the state leader will continue.
The Australian Federal Police have arrested a second former high ranking executive associated with Leighton Holdings as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged foreign bribery.
Casino and mobile game giant Aristocrat Leisure has reached a settlement in its lawsuit against rival Ainsworth Game Technology that alleged a former employee stole trade secrets related to a lucrative slot machine.
The law firm that led an unfunded class action against the Federal government over the controversial Robodebt scheme will ask the court to approve up to $16 million in legal costs when it seeks approval for the $112 million settlement reached in the class action last year.
Two psychiatrists at the heart of the Chelmsford deep sleep therapy scandal have launched an appeal of a decision dismissing their defamation case against HarperCollins as an attempt to “rewrite history” regarding the harm done to those receiving the controversial treatment.
A judge has rejected a bid by Uber to significantly trim a class action brought by Maurice Blackburn on behalf of successors and assignees or taxi drivers after the law firm unsuccessfully sought to add them to a separate class action against the ride share giant.
Two Melbourne law firms are locked in a courtroom battle over their ‘C’ trade marks made up of concentric circles, after IP Australia allowed two of the disputed marks to proceed to registration.
The maker of Mother energy drinks has had its Motherland trade mark removed by IP Australia, with a delegate granting a win to rival caffeinated beverage maker Vittoria Food & Beverage in finding that the mark should be removed for non-use.