Western Australia

Construction equipment giant Caterpillar has accused a former employee of flagrantly copying “many thousands” of confidential files before moving to a rival.

Mining magnate Clive Palmer and two of his mining firms have lost a High Court challenge seeking to overturn a Western Australian law which prevented him from suing the state government for $30 billion over mining tenements in the Pilbara.

Struggling mining firm Griffin Coal has been ordered to pay $5.1 million to liquidators of a collapsed mining services company after a judge found it had breached a contractual term not to trade while insolvent.

Trial judges should not communicate with barristers outside of court, the High Court has ruled in a “troubling” case of apprehended bias that saw a divorcee’s counsel socialising with the judge presiding over her long-running and “tortured” Family Law case.

Law firm Hall & Wilcox has snagged a new partner from Norton Rose Fulbright to join its construction and project disputes team, as part of an ambitious national growth strategy.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has filed court action against a multi-million dollar Western Australian biotech company, alleging it made several misleading representations to the market during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

An ABC feature reporter who was hit with an $18,000 pay cut and who allegedly developed a medical condition from being “overworked” is suing the national broadcaster for discrimination and breaches of employment law.

An appeals court has found law firm Squire Patton Boggs breached its contractual obligations but was not grossly negligent after it was dragged into a financial dispute over the $12.5 million refurbishment of a Western Australian gold processing plant.

Clive Palmer and his company Mineralogy have lost a challenge to a Western Australia Supreme Court decision staying a $263 million lawsuit against Hong Kong-based CITIC, with an appeals court finding the mining giant’s decision to abandon and relitigate matters amounted to “unjustified trouble and harassment”.

Fossil fuel giant Shell Australia has partially won a challenge to a tax office decision denying deductions claimed over an acquisition the increased the company’s stake in Woodside Energy’s Browse Basin gas exploration joint venture project.