Justice David Hammerschlag of the NSW Supreme Court has a way with words that readily lends itself to dramatic courtroom headlines. The “Hammer,” as he is known, also pulls no punches and is quick with one liners that keep counsel on their toes. Here, Lawyerly looks at some of the recent best moments inside courtroom 7D.
The careful, methodical approach of 20-year class action veteran and Allens partner Jenny Campbell is in demand in the fast-changing class action world, where the only certainty is uncertainty.
A judge has dismissed a professional negligence claim against a personal injury law firm, finding no prospect of success for a former client who alleged the firm “coerced” him into settlement of a workplace sexual assault case so they could receive their costs.
A judge has refused to sign off on a $42 million settlement of a class action against dairy giant Murray Goulburn, saying the commission sought by the funder appeared out of proportion to the risk and above the going rate.
A new report from the Law Council of Australia has revealed female barristers are doing more work for less money overall, with equitable briefing improvements outstripped by slow growth in fee parity.
The NSW government’s Sydney Olympic Park Authority, which is facing a class action brought by owners of apartments at the troubled Opal Tower, has laid the blame on the developer, designer and builder behind the project.
Channel Seven has lost a six-year defamation battle over a Today Tonight story that described a woman on single parenting payments as “the Centrelink cheat who got awayâ, after an appeals court found the publication was “manifestly unreasonable”.
Against a backdrop of an industrial relations system which has diminished union and workersâ power, class actions are again re-emerging as an alternative tool to challenge employersâ unlawful conduct. And in the current class actions landscape, the ability to run closed class proceedings on behalf of union members, or otherwise offer alternative fee arrangements to non-members in open class proceedings, is essential to trade unionsâ willingness to embrace the representative proceeding regime, writes Slater & Gordon lawyer Alex Blennerhassett.
The admissibility of print-outs from the âWayback Machine â Internet Archiveâ website is increasingly being considered by the Federal Court of Australia. The decision of Justice Burley in Dyno Nobel Inc v Orica Explosives Technology Pty Ltd on September 17 provides clear insight to the courtâs approach to Wayback evidence and the circumstances in which it might be admissible, writes Bird & Bird’s Lynne Lewis and Angelica Sorn.
Former Wallabies star Israel Folau offered to make a public apology for a homophobic social media slur that got him fired, a court has been told.