Region

Queensland is facing a class action investigation on behalf of detainees who were allegedly subjected to isolation, excessive force and other harmful conditions at five youth detention centres in the state. 

Mirvac has entered into a joint venture with Japanese developer Mitsubishi Estate to deliver a mixed-use precinct in Sydney’s Darling Harbour, estimated to have an end value of over $2 billion. 

A Tasmanian community group has lost its appeal against a decision by a local council to grant a permit for Ark Energy’s proposed St Patricks Plains Wind Farm, but a tribunal has ordered the wind farm to tweak its plans.

Plans to transform the site of the former VicRoads in Kew have progressed, with four developers invited by the Victorian government to put forward development proposals, including Lendlease and Mirvac.

Victorian Liberal deputy leader Sam Groth and his wife, Brittany, have launched the first privacy suit of its kind over two Herald Sun articles that speculated about whether their relationship began when Brittany was underage.

A Federal Court judge has predicted class action defendants will start arguing law firms cannot cooperate in running class actions, after a different judge hearing a case against Google recently remarked that such arrangements could be anti-competitive. 

A class actions expert has found there has been a spike in contingency fee rates in Victoria over the last two years, expressing concerns that the regime enacted in 2020 may be going in a different way than intended. 

A judge has approved a 33 per cent group costs order in a class action against Sportsbet, saying the relatively high rate was justified by the risks of running the “relatively novel case", which seeks repayment of gambling losses stemming from allegedly unlawful services.

A court has ordered the de facto director of failed construction company Trinco to pay its liquidator $10 million, finding that the builder had been trading while insolvent since 2018.

A judge has found that builder DT Infrastructure’s application for adjudication of a $22 million payment claim against Downer EDI was discharged by Downer paying off a smaller claim of less than $1 million, which was the only amount expressly referred to in DTI’s application.