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.
The High Court has denied the ATO’s request that it weigh in on Australia’s transfer pricing regime, leaving in place a Full Court victory for mining giant Glencore that left it paying $2 million of a $92 million bill relating to the sale of copper from a mine in Cobar, NSW.
Arnott’s and Campbells have settled a lawsuit brought by Goodman Fielder accusing them of infringing its ‘Plantry’ mark under which it sells plant-based frozen meals, after the cookie company filed a cross-claim seeking to have the mark cancelled.
A judge has refused to sign off on $13.8 million in fees sought by law firm Maurice Blackburn as part of a $44.5 million settlement in a class action against Woolworths, saying the amount was “intuitively out of the range” of what was a reasonable legal bill for the case.
A record number of class actions were filed in the past year but shareholder class actions, which have been the primary target of the federal government’s attack on the class action regime, have decreased in significance, says Professor Vince Morabito.
The lead counsel in class actions against AMP and Vocation and a silk who worked on the landmark Black Saturday bushfire class actions are the latest judicial appointees to the Victoria Supreme Court, boosting the class action chops of the court’s bench.
Virgin Australia has defeated a lawsuit brought by two passengers who were served water which allegedly contained perfume, with a judge finding that their subsequent medical issues were not caused by the “tainted” water.
Lawyers welcomed the government’s “overdue” announcement of a so-called patent box that will slash the tax rate on income derived from patented drug and biotech inventions developed in Australia, but called on the government to apply the regime to other sectors.
US-based firm Jones Day has snagged one of Perth’s top energy litigators from rival Quinn Emanuel to bolster its global disputes team.
Victoria’s attorney-general has appointed star senior counsel for the banking royal commission, Rowena Orr QC, as the state’s highest legal adviser.