Insurers Lloyds Australia and QBE want class actions by policyholders who were denied business interruption coverage for COVID-related shutdowns stayed until a related test case in the Federal Court is decided.
The heavy toll of COVID-related border closures on businesses in northern New South Wales could trigger a class action lawsuit, a lawyers has warned, as the political debate heats up over a proposal to move the border 7km south to the Tweed River.
A judge has thrown out a protester’s lawsuit challenging Victoria’s stay-at-home orders during the state’s extended lockdown last year, saying the relevant provisions in the government’s emergency legislation were valid “in all their potential operations”.
Sydney’s ongoing COVID-19 lockdown has created “logistical” difficulties delaying the release of a long awaited judgment in the ACCC’s consumer law case against collapsed private college Phoenix Institute, which was accused of misleading students through the marketing of its courses.
A controversial announcement by Victorian-based fruit and vegetable processor SPC that it will mandate COVID-19 vaccines for all of its 450 onsite workers could face legal challenges on several grounds.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has filed court action against a multi-million dollar Western Australian biotech company, alleging it made several misleading representations to the market during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A class action over Melbourne’s public housing lockdown during its second COVID-19 wave in July last year will continue after the lawyer previously running the case was stripped of her practicing certificate.
Qantas has lost a case brought by the Transport Workers Union that challenged the airline’s decision to axe 2,000 staff and replace them with “insecure” labour hire workers, with a judge finding Qantas boss Andrew David outsourced ground operations partly to prevent employees engaging in industrial action.
The Victorian Government has told a judge the COVID-19 restrictions imposed during its extended lockdown last year did not infringe on the freedom of political communication, as trial kicked off in a protestor’s lawsuit challenging the stay-at-home orders.
While employers cannot force employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine, law firms are launching campaigns to encourage staff to sign up for the jab.