Queensland

Group members enjoy broader protection against the running of limitation periods than lead plaintiffs in class actions, an appeals court has said in finding that commercial fishing operators heading a class action against Gladstone Ports could not bring new claims out of time. 

A court has granted an extension to the limitation period for a pelvic mesh patient suing her doctor for negligence, finding she did not have the knowledge to bring the case before the three-year window closed and that her claim for substantial damages for personal injury appeared “well founded”. 

The corporate regulator is seeking to stay proceedings brought by Clive Palmer challenging the lawfulness of a seven year-old compulsory examination being used in a criminal case against him, arguing the billionaire’s litigation is an abuse of process.

A court has given the green light to BHP’s bid to extend a Queensland coal mine over the objections of an environmental lobby group, saying the court’s acceptance of climate change did not mean it would reject all applications for fossil fuel projects.

The litigation funder and lead plaintiffs in a class action against Queensland-owned Gladstone Ports are in dispute over who should be engaged to act in the long-running case after the solicitor on record left Clyde & Co for a rival law firm.

A solicitor who posted comments on his client’s Facebook page about an ongoing criminal proceeding has been reprimanded for improper use of social media.

McCullough Robertson has avoided a client’s bid for indemnity costs despite a judge’s finding the law firm waited an “inordinate” amount of time to withdraw a statutory demand for payment of a $237,000 legal bill. 

The High Court has handed a win to a class action on behalf of Queensland ratepayers who were wrongly charged levies over a period of six years, rejecting the local council’s argument that the levies were put to good use.

The Supreme Court of Queensland has found that a 2021 direction for police officers to receive the COVID-19 vaccination was unlawful and a similar mandate for ambulance service workers had no effect.

Mining giant Clive Palmer has asked the High Court to hear his challenge to a court’s finding that lawsuits he brought challenging two criminal cases against him over a takeover bid and payments to his political party were themselves an abuse of process and should be stayed.