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Bupa Aged Care has dropped a lawsuit challenging a directive by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission that it claimed overlapped with proceedings brought by the ACCC in which it was recently ordered to pay a $6 million penalty.
The reopening of law firm offices in Melbourne and Sydney may still be months away but firms have given Lawyerly a glimpse of what it might look like when staff do return to the office, from split workforces to strictly enforced health and safety rules. One thing is for sure, COVID-19 has changed the way lawyers will work from now on.
Seismic changes are set to lead to fundamental changes in the economic feasibility and incentives of the various stakeholders involved. The option to charge contingency fees on class actions will provide the commercial imperative for adopting tried and tested advanced technologies and working practices on class action matters, says James Moeskops of Sky Discovery.
In its recent decision, the Federal Court has confirmed that schemes are not patentable merely because they are "new and ingenious" and are implemented using a computer. While the door is not completely closed on computer implemented schemes, the patentability threshold will never be passed unless there is some innovation in the computer technology, says Jane Owen and Rebecca Currey of Bird & Bird.
A former solicitor with McCabe Curwood has lost his attempt to overturn an order that he pay $36,000 in costs to his former employer, after an appeals court found that his challenge was "incompetent".
With COVID-19 forcing courts to deal with more matters on the papers, written submissions are more important than ever and must be carefully crafted to assist the court while offering clients the best chance of success, barristers told Lawyerly.
The settlement arrangement resolving five class actions against Volkswagen, which carved out hefty legal fees from the $120 million payout to drivers, could become more prevalent as the spotlight is once again trained on the cost of class actions. But the approach is not without controversy, experts say.
Norton Rose Fulbright has lost its second partner this month, with the defection of IP specialist Helen MacPherson to Baker McKenzie.
Litigation funders say they do not oppose the government's plan to subject them to a licensing regime, but legal experts told Lawyerly the crackdown on funders may go too far too fast and could harm class action litigants.
Boral has successfully defended a lawsuit brought by a subsidiary of building products supplier Wagners, which previously estimated it would take a $10 million financial hit for suspending a cement supply contract with the construction giant.