Courts

A judge at the forefront of early case law on contingency fees in Victoria Supreme Court class actions has been appointed to the state's Court of Appeal.

A barrister whose performance in a remote trial drew comparisons to Al Pacino in 'The Godfather' has been sworn in as a judge on the Victorian Supreme Court, with the new judge promising to bring patience, fairness and hard work to the bench.

NSW Supreme Court Chief Justice Andrew Bell has warned that AI creates new risks and liabilities for companies that will have to be sorted out in the courts as the government adopts a 'technology neutral' approach to regulation. 

Justice Rowena Orr, known by the nickname 'Shock and Orr' during her time as senior counsel for the banking royal commission, has been appointed president of the Victorian Court of Appeal.

A new judge has joined the Victorian Supreme Court bench, after 28 years at the bar where he acted on product liability class actions, including a case against Monsanto over allegedly carcinogenic weed killer. 

A newly appointed judge, praised as "hugely intelligent" and a "quiet assassin" on cross-examination, has welcomed the legal profession’s growing focus on mental health and called for greater diversity at the Bar.

A leading class action judge has urged courts to lean into AI, suggesting the technology could rescue lawyers and judges from "mountains of documents or elaborate processes" that waste resources, freeing them up to do what AI cannot: exercise judgment.

A senior judge has urged lawyers and judges to “be in the vanguard” of adopting generative artificial intelligence or risk becoming irrelevant, saying machine-made judicial decisions are inevitable.

The Federal Court of Australia has said it underpaid almost 250 former and current over the past eight years, pointing to a payroll configuration issue as the culprit.

Human experience must remain central to judicial decision-making, a top judge has warned, even as he acknowledged that artificial intelligence was just as capable as civil law judges of fair adjudication.