Western Australia

An investigation has been launched into a possible class action that would seek “housing justice” for Aboriginal tenants living in substandard public housing in Western Australia, following a landmark ruling by the High Court.

The government of Western Australia has agreed to pay up to $180.4 million to settle a class action on behalf of First Nations workers who were paid little or nothing over a 36-year period.

Financial services provider Pioneer Credit has taken auditor PwC to court, claiming $32 million in loss and damages over its advice on how the company should value its financial assets.

A judge has granted wealth manager Ord Minnett’s bid for injunctions preventing a former senior wealth adviser from soliciting its clients.

Dutch paint company Akzo Nobel has lost its bid to transfer a case over the $45 billion Ichthys natural gas project to state court in Western Australia, with a judge finding the overlap with insurance-related proceedings in the state court was tolerable.

A trial in a class action against Western Australia on behalf of First Nations workers seeking to recover stolen wages has been pushed off, suggesting the parties are close to a settlement.

A solicitor has been found guilty of professional misconduct for shuttering his law practice to avoid paying a barrister’s $137,000 bill and for repeatedly failing to respond to the legal watchdog’s subsequent requests for information.

A judge has denied Fairfax’s bid to strike out allegations by a Western Australian businessman that it was the publisher of allegedly defamatory comments that appeared on one of its Facebook pages.

A judge has restrained a Perth law firm from acting in a case against developer Tina Bazzo and her husband, finding an information barrier protocol was not enough to offset concerns about the firm’s prior representation of Bazzo in another dispute.

An appeals court has set aside findings of professional misconduct against a Perth solicitor who allegedly failed to pay a silk $23,000 in fees after finding a tribunal member had served on a chambers’ board with the senior barrister for eight years.