New South Wales

Two employment silks and a criminal barrister have been selected by the NSW government to serve on the state’s restored Industrial Court.

A class action against Transport for NSW over the alleged fraudulent acquisition of land to construct the $16 billion Westconnex tunnel in Sydney has been put on ice until the funder and the lead plaintiff can resolve a potential dispute. 

A judge has shut down a case by Icon against Australia’s nuclear agency over the $27 million construction of a waste treatment plant at Lucas Heights, saying the dispute should be determined by an arbitrator despite the parties waiving pre-arbitration steps.

The NSW Supreme Court has issued a practice note on forms of address that fails to invite parties to inform the court of their preferred pronouns, unlike two other state courts, one of which came under fire from ‘Harry Potter’ author JK Rowling last year.

The High Court is set to weigh in on a challenge to a precedent-setting decision that found breaches of statutory duty under a provision of the Design and Building Practitioners Act are not apportionable, in a case with significant ramifications for the NSW construction industry.

The NSW Court of Appeal has said it has no power to exclude group members who do not sign up to a class action from participating in a settlement, upholding a controversial decision that the Full Federal Court said was “plainly wrong”. 

A Sydney solicitor has lost his bid to summarily dismiss the legal watchdog’s case alleging he set up misleading crowdfunding pages seeking funding for class actions over government orders requiring mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations, as well as another class action that was never filed.

A tribunal has found prominent barrister Charles Waterstreet guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct for sexually harassing three women, but declined to find he was unfit to practice after accepting expert evidence that undiagnosed mental illness “was the dominant causal factor” behind his actions.

A class action seeking to hold a regional NSW law firm liable for the actions of a former employee who was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for fraud offences in 2021 has reached a settlement. 

A class action against the New South Wales government alleging it discriminated against Indigenous communities on the south coast for engaging in cultural fishing practices will include up to 15,000 people, a court has heard.