Region

Still in the dark about insurance coverage and seeking to stem the flow of cash, two class actions against Heritage Care and St Basil’s over COVID-19 outbreaks have been shelved pending the outcome of criminal cases against the Victorian aged care providers, in a decision the judge said “wouldn’t gladden the hearts of group members”. 

The latest judge to join the NSW Supreme Court has expressed a desire to foster a serious but collegiate environment for advocates and has remarked on the rising importance of legal directories for barristers. 

The Victorian government faces a class action over its decision to redevelop Melbourne’s high-rise public housing towers, with lawyers for residents calling on the state to reconsider the plan.

A former client has sued Mills Oakley and a Victorian law firm alleging they were negligent while advising on a property transaction with his parents that did not go through. 

Sydney real estate group The Agency has lost an appeal in its trade mark case against a rival, with the Full Federal Court upholding a finding that the company would have an “unwarranted monopoly” if other businesses were barred from using the descriptive words in its name.

Thiess has defeated a lawsuit by a rock supplier seeking $9.3 million in damages for alleged delays by the mining services giant in receiving materials for work on Chevron’s Wheatstone natural gas hub. 

Hackers behind a cyberattack on Victoria’s court system may have accessed recordings of hearings stretching back to 2016, Court Services Victoria has said. On January 2, CSV CEO Louise Anderson notified the public that hackers had breached a network with video and audio recordings of courts across Victoria, saying recordings of hearings that took place…

The federal government has hit back at a class action over an outbreak of white spot disease in South-East Queensland that decimated the commercial prawn industry, pointing the finger at several importers and saying farmers failed to mitigate their own losses.

Subcontractor Ventia Utility Services had lost its bid to recover $5.6 million in alleged overpayments to class action group members from co-defendant Western Power, after its liability was reduced on appeal in a representative proceeding over the 2014 Perth Hills bushfire.

A court fight has broken out between a vaccine developer and South Australia’s Flinders University over the supply of mice and access to a lab at the college, with the professor’s lawyer declaring the battle “literally a matter of life and death”.