Queensland

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.

Mining magnate Clive Palmer has lost an appeal seeking to throw out two criminal cases over a takeover bid and payments to his political party, with an appeals court finding the challenge was an abuse of process.

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.

The Full Federal Court has found that Telstra can be sued for a former employee’s alleged sexual harassment of his neighbours, finding  harassment that is part of a private dispute may also occur in the course of providing services.

Clive Palmer has lost his bid to overturn a council decision to reject his plan for a residential development at a Gold Coast flood plain, with a judge noting that would-be residents would be subject to the “adverse odours” of a nearby sewerage treatment plant.