Region

Grocon has taken a hit in its $270 million lawsuit against Infrastructure NSW over a stalled $2 billion Central Barangaroo development project, with a judge finding the developer’s CEO waived privilege over legal advice it received on the sight line rights of Lendlease and Crown.

A judge has restrained a Perth law firm from acting in a case against developer Tina Bazzo and her husband, finding an information barrier protocol was not enough to offset concerns about the firm’s prior representation of Bazzo in another dispute.

A judge has expressed his preliminary view that cases brought in Queensland cannot be thrown out where the costs of the claims are disproportionate to their importance, allowing a defamation case by entrepreneur Robert McVicker against the ABC to proceed. 

An appeals court has set aside findings of professional misconduct against a Perth solicitor who allegedly failed to pay a silk $23,000 in fees after finding a tribunal member had served on a chambers’ board with the senior barrister for eight years. 

A judge has approved a common fund order awarding $6.88 million to the funder behind a class action against Fonterra that settled for $25 million, opting not to wait for a much-anticipated appeals court ruling on the power to make CFOs at settlement.

A class action against a group of surgeons who worked for The Cosmetic Institute over allegedly incompetent breast augmentation procedures has been set down for trial over the “loud protest” of the defendants, with a judge choosing to accommodate the plaintiff’s no win, no fee counsel team. 

One law firm has emerged victorious in a four-way contest to run a shareholder class action against Star Entertainment with the lowest proposed group costs order since contingency fees legislation was enacted in Victoria. 

Clayton Utz has lost its appeal of a costs assessment in a contractual dispute for which it billed $1.46 million in legal fees, allegedly five times more than the other parties’ legal bill.

A self-executing order dismissing a woman’s false imprisonment claim against the State of Victoria after a single attempt at pleading was “draconian”, an appeals court has found.

Federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek’s decision to greenlight the expansion of two mega coal mines in NSW was contrary to findings by the “entire community of climate scientists around the globe”, a court has heard.