A former ATO worker who accused his employer of using heavy handed debt collection tactics against taxpayers has lost his second bid for immunity from prosecution, with an appeals court finding that whistleblowing laws only protect the disclosure itself.
Melbourne mattress and bedding start-up Sleeping Duck is seeking preliminary discovery of communications between former employees and rival company Eva Sleep, including correspondence allegedly containing financial information and trade secrets.
A judge has ordered Transport for NSW to only pay 65 per cent of the costs of a class action over Sydney’s $3 billion light rail construction, finding it was not inappropriate to apportion costs even though the plaintiffs were largely successful.
An arrangement to restructure Queensland labour hire services company Comlek has survived a challenge by the state’s revenue office, which wanted the business wound up, claiming the restructure was against public interest and commercial morality.
The Tasmanian government has agreed to settle a class action on behalf of former child detainees of the state’s Ashley Youth Detention Centre alleging decades of systemic negligence by management.
The NSW Supreme Court would have the power to deal with a contingency fee order made in a class action against KPMG if the accounting firm won its application to move the case from Victoria, making the existence of the order a neutral factor in the transfer bid, the federal Attorney-General has told the High Court.
NSW’s workplace health and safety regulator is conducting inquiries into Nine Entertainment amid allegations of inappropriate behaviour by its former news director, as several women in the TV industry mull sexual harassment and discrimination claims.
A Wollongong wills and estates solicitor has been struck from the roll, with the NSW Supreme Court finding it was warranted given the seriousness and extent of the offending, as well as the solicitor’s initial reticence to cooperate with the investigation.
A judge has refused to allow an owners corporation to serve late expert evidence in its case against developer Mirvac over alleged defects in a Sydney apartment complex, saying a solicitor’s explanation about “competing commitments” was inadequate and “a circumstance shared by most members of the legal profession”.
An energy company has taken the minister for climate change and energy to court for refusing to greenlight its Seadragon wind farm project, which would have placed up to 150 wind turbines in waters off the coast of Gippsland, Victoria.