A lawyer who argued his conduct towards a paralegal was not sexual harassment but a display of ardent affection akin to ‘Mr Darcy’ in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ has lost his appeal of a $170,000 judgment against him, with the Full Federal Court saying the case was “as far from a Jane Austen novel as it is possible to be”.
Facing accusations of being a “litigation bounty hunter”, litigation funder Augusta Ventures has made its bid before the Full Federal Court to overturn a landmark ruling which put it on the hook for $3.1 million in security in two Fair Work class actions.
HWL Ebsworth, the law firm at the centre of a coronavirus outbreak, is facing an investigation by WorkSafe that could result in criminal charges for breaches of workplace health and safety laws.
Federal police have charged 12 members of an alleged sophisticated criminal syndicate, including construction industry figure George Alex, which authorities say enlisted the help of financial industry experts and former bankers to pull off a $17 million fraud.
A ‘sham contracting’ class action against fundraiser Appco, said to be worth $90 million, could be settled in two weeks, the lawyer for the lead applicant told a judge on Monday.
An increase in the number of unfair dismissal cases and the addition of JobKeeper disputes has seen the general caseload of the Fair Work Commission jump by 30 per cent as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, FWC President Justice Iain Ross AO told Lawyerly.
The corporate watchdog would not take action on funding terms in a Fair Work class action brought by Adero Law, after receiving reports of potential misleading or deceptive conduct by the law firm and the funder backing the case, according to submissions made in the government’s latest inquiry into litigation funding and class actions.
The Victoria state government has launched reviews into the sexual harassment policies of its courts and tribunals and the law firms that provide services to the government, following allegations of sexual harassment against former High Court justice Dyson Heydon.
The parties in a ‘sham’ contracting class action brought on behalf of telecommunications workers have both lost bids to recover interlocutory costs, with a judge noting that costs orders against funded litigants should be the exception rather than the rule in Fair Work litigation.
The workplace umpire has jurisdiction to hear a case against Qantas and its budget subsidiary Jetstar brought by the union for licenced aircraft maintenance engineers stood down during the coronavirus pandemic, a judge has ruled in a blow to the airline.