Queensland

A judge has ordered Shine Lawyers to pay indemnity costs in a side dispute over an “objectionable” subpoena the firm issued five days before trial was set to start in a personal injury case over alleged sexual abuse at the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre.

Clive Palmer’s Queensland Nickel refinery has lost its appeal of a decision ordering it pay $26.6 million for natural gas charges owed after a court rejected claims it did not need to repay the money because pipeline owners had breached their duties.

A judge has found that Telstra cannot be held liable for the sexually harassing conduct of a former employee who allegedly accessed confidential contact information to launch a four-year campaign of harassment against his next-door neighbours.

A judge who has granted a lawyer leave to appear in proceedings via audio visual link has warned the legal profession that courts are expecting to “return to normal” and that tolerance for remote hearings has “come to an end”.

A judge has rejected a bid by Clive Palmer-owned Palmer Leisure Australia to throw out legal action by the Electoral Commission of Queensland over donations the golf course management company made to Palmer’s United Australia Party in 2020.

Clive Palmer’s mining company Mineralogy has lost a bid to stay an expert determination process in a royalties dispute with Adani, with a judge ruling that the court should not “lightly disregard” decisions to resolve disputes by expert determination rather than court-based litigation.

Dentons has picked up a partner from Holding Redlich to bolster its construction practice ahead of the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane.

A judge has ordered that a competition class action against Queensland power companies Stanwell and CS Energy be made open to all energy consumers in the state, saying it was not a “plain vanilla” commercial class action. 

A judge has ruled that a senior Queensland police official waived legal professional privilege during cross examination, allowing the plaintiffs in a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination challenge to see legal advice about the jab direction by the Crown Solicitor.

A judge has rejected a court-appointed costs assessor’s opinion that engaging a silk to fight an interlocutory application in a spat between two Queensland law firms was “plainly a luxury”.