A federal court judge has slammed Australia’s use of makeshift hotel detention centres as lacking “ordinary human decency”, but ruled they are not illegal in the case of a Kurdish refugee who was held for 14 months in two Melbourne hotels.
The Albanese government has named a Sydney university law professor as Australia’s new Sex Discrimination Commissioner.
A judge has adjourned a trial in a case brought by junior doctors seeking to recoup alleged unpaid overtime, despite noting his annoyance over the applicants’ “180 degree turn” on the question of whether the hearing should await delivery of judgment in a related case.
A judge has found that preliminary discovery does not extend to information about the likely recovery of a claim, rejecting an argument that the relevant rule allows prospective plaintiffs to test whether litigation will be “worthwhile”.
An appeal by Atanaskovic Hartnell over a $330,000 damages judgment in favor of a former general manager is motivated in part by the court’s award of costs in what is a typical ‘no-cost’ employment case, the firm has told a judge, who questioned how much money had been spent on the case already.
GetSwift director Joel Macdonald still has not been served almost a year after his former Melbourne Demons teammate James Strauss filed a $15 million lawsuit against him, with a judge adjourning yet another substituted service application.
A court has blessed a trust’s settlement with Ernst & Young that resolves a negligence case linked to a decade-long tax dispute that went to the High Court, rejecting an objection to the deal and saying it was “time this matter was brought to a conclusion”.
Oil company Lighthouse Corporation has lost its bid to force East Timor to jump through hoops to access a suite of documents in a $328 million dispute over a failed fuel supply agreement, but has succeeded in keeping the documents out of public hands amid fears by its director for his safety.
A judge overseeing a shareholder class action against Insurance Australia Group says more evidence is needed to back the applicant’s bid for an order giving lawyers 30 per cent of any recoveries.
The NSW government and the former developer of a stalled $2 billion Central Barangaroo development project are headed for a discovery showdown in their $270 million stoush, with both sides fighting to protect what they say are privileged communications.