Region

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.

The owners of a landmark building in the Sydney suburb of Manly have lost their challenge to a decision which found they owed the local council over $419,000 in car park licence fees and damages for installing a roller door. 

A judge hearing a dispute over Emerald Resources' takeover of Bullseye Mining has rejected a bid by Bullseye's former executive director to enjoin Emerald from retaining lawyers that previously represented her for a period of three weeks in an unrelated dispute.

Former senator Linda Reynolds has won $315,000 in damages in her defamation case against ex-staffer Brittany Higgins over social media posts that allegedly implied she mishandled rape allegations against Bruce Lehrmann.

A class action on behalf of nearly 150 NSW Liberal Party members who claim party officials failed to lodge their nomination forms ahead of the 2024 local government elections is seeking leave to file a third mended statement of claim.

An entity of construction giant Frasers is seeking summary dismissal of one of multiple cases by owners at a Sydney inner city high rise development over planter boxes that have allegedly detached or fallen to the street.