Victoria

Appellate guidance is needed on whether a history of cooperation between law firms that brought competing class actions can be the deciding factor in a close carriage contest, the Victorian Court of Appeal has heard.

A County Court of Victoria judge has been found to have breached the standards of conduct generally expected of judicial officers in his handling of a rape trial, following a complaint by the state’s top prosecutor.

A judge has granted the Victorian government’s bid to dismiss a class action over its decision to retire Melbourne’s high-rise public housing towers, but allowed the applicant to recast his claim, despite protests from the state. 

A judge on the Supreme Court of Victoria says he is a ‘convert’ on group costs orders, which allow law firms running class action to earn a cut of any settlement or judgment, saying GCOs will give better returns to group members and that conflicts can be managed.

Charges accusing Victoria’s Department of Health of health and safety breaches during the state’s hotel quarantine program have been dropped on the eve of trial, after the state succeeded in excluding evidence submitted to an inquiry into the disastrous program.

Proceedings are capable of being determined by the act of filing a discontinuance, a judge has said in approving an application for the discontinuance of a class action over Fire Rescue Victoria’s COVID-19 risk management practices. 

Woolworths has been fined $1.3 million by a magistrate after admitting it failed to pay long service leave entitlements to more than 1,000 employees.

A judge hearing the Victorian government’s bid to knock out a class action over its decision to retire Melbourne’s high-rise public housing towers has questioned the state’s submission that the decision had “no effect” on the rights of tenants.

Gordon Legal is investigating a possible class action related to alleged misconduct by a late Melbourne lawyer on behalf of people who provided “large sums of money” to him and his suburban legal practice.

As the head of Maurice Blackburn’s class actions group he helped win hundreds of millions of dollars for claimants and shaped the jurisprudence around the practice. As the Victorian Supreme Court’s newest judge, Andrew Watson has promised to keep up the fight for fair.