Former Attorney-General Christian Porter has succeeded in scrubbing from the court record the ABC’s full defence in his now-settled defamation suit against the broadcaster, over the protests of media outlets, with a judge finding the principle of open justice was “not absolute”.
A judge has found former NSW Labor Ministers Ian McDonald and Eddie Obeid, as well as Obeid’s son Moses, guilty of conspiring to rig a tender process for a coal mining exploration licence on the Obeids’ land in the Bylong Valley.
The High Court has declined to hear a case that challenges the power of judges to make common fund orders at the close of litigation, a challenge the Federal Court had labelled “hypothetical”.
Global resources giant BHP Group has lost an appeal in its fight to exclude foreign investors from a shareholder class action over the 2015 Fundao dam disaster, after arguing the class action regime applies only to those in Australia.
The federal Minister for the Environment owes a duty of care to children who could suffer “catastrophic” harms from increased greenhouse gas emissions that would result from approving the expansion of Whitehaven’s Vickery coal mine, a judge has ruled.
Judges have power to manage competing class actions by picking a winner in a so-called beauty parade, the High Court has ruled, but there is no one size fits all approach to the decision, and the law firm that files first is not guaranteed the coveted prize.
Maurice Blackburn is abandoning its class action against Westpac over the bank’s alleged responsible lending law breaches, weeks after ASIC lost its appeal in the so-called wagyu and shiraz case and conceded defeat.
Deloitte has lost its appeal of a ruling in a shareholder class action over the collapse of Hastie Group that compelled the production of audit files taken by a partner from the accounting giant’s litigation room, in a ruling that described the actions of the partner as “bordering on contempt” and slammed Deloitte for “cynically” exploiting the situation.
Judges have no power to order all class action members to pay a proportion of a litigation funder’s commission out of their share of a settlement, the High Court has ruled in a landmark judgment that deals a huge defeat to litigation funders.
The National Australia Bank and insurer MLC have agreed to pay $49.5 million to settle a class action over allegedly worthless credit card insurance.