A time-strapped judge’s decision that was set aside for “uncritical copying and pasting” exposes deeper issues about stressed judges at under-resourced courts with “extraordinary workloads”, experts say.
A “time poor” judge’s extensive copying and pasting of submissions and an offensive tweet by senator Pauline Hanson were at the centre of the week’s biggest litigation wins.
Years of hard fought litigation by axed Qantas ground crew and generic drug maker Sandoz ended in victory this week, thanks to legal eagles from Maurice Blackburn and Ashurst and their counsel. The week opened with a bang with a decision from Federal Court Justice Michael Lee in three landmark test cases by the Transport…
Experts say the chaos of last month’s CrowdStrike outage is likely to spark a flurry of litigation both overseas and at home, including class actions, but lawyers bringing the claims will face significant hurdles.
Former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann has yet to engage lawyers to pursue his appeal of a judge’s finding that he raped colleague Brittany Higgins in Parliament House, but while he has the right to represent himself, experts have told Lawyerly it would be “very unwise” for him to run the case on his own.
Workplace investigations involving unwitnessed, conflicting accounts are among the most difficult situations for an employer, but findings can still be made, despite the “common misconception” there is nothing to tip the balance, according to experts.
A landmark $230 million settlement in an underpayments class action on behalf of junior doctors in NSW shows employment group proceedings are “viable and attractive” and may encourage more players to pursue representative cases on behalf of workers, according to class action experts.
Judges experience extreme levels of stress and secondary trauma, exacerbated by public comment that is often ignorant of what the job entails. The transparent approach taken by the judge presiding over the Bruce Lehrmann case may help pave the way to alleviating some of that stress, but more needs to be done, experts say.
Leading lawyers have welcomed a new practice note in the Commercial Court division of the Victorian Supreme Court, including a “rigid framework” to cut down on interlocutory disputation which is expected to benefit commercial class action litigants, but some say the note “should have gone further” to compel discovery from defendants.
When the Supreme Court of Victoria considers for the first time a settlement reached in a class action run on a contingency fee basis, it will grapple with some novel questions, including whether to trim the 27.5 per cent group costs order granted to Slater & Gordon at the outset of the case, legal experts say.