The law firm behind a class action against Insurance Australia Group has secured a group costs order that will give it 30 per cent of any proceeds — a contingency fee rate six percentage points higher than the median rate for shareholder cases.
The Supreme Court of Queensland has found that a 2021 direction for police officers to receive the COVID-19 vaccination was unlawful and a similar mandate for ambulance service workers had no effect.
A judge’s decision to place little weight on the character reference of a defendant that read like the work of ChatGPT should make lawyers think twice before employing artificial intelligence to author material intended for the court’s eyes.
Former Supreme Court of Victoria Justice Lex Lasry served with the “highest standards of integrity”, and the circumstances that led to his resignation from the bench were “regrettable and extraordinary”, the president of Australia’s association of judges has said as reports emerge that the DPP has made a complaint about a second judge.
The DPP’s complaint to Victoria’s judicial watchdog that prompted the shock resignation of Supreme Court Justice Lex Lasry was an abuse of process, experts say, and the judge’s decision to step down was a “deeply saddening end to a stellar judicial career”. But the Office of Public Prosecutions has strongly rejected the claim.
Mining giant Clive Palmer has asked the High Court to hear his challenge to a court’s finding that lawsuits he brought challenging two criminal cases against him over a takeover bid and payments to his political party were themselves an abuse of process and should be stayed.
REST Super faces a class action alleging the supererannuation trustee deducted premiums for income protection insurance that provided no benefit to members.
A high-profile criminal judge in Victoria has stunned a courtroom with his announcement from the bench that he would resign after learning of a DPP complaint to the state’s judicial commission over his handling of a case linked to the Eastern Freeway accident that killed four police officers.
The High Court has granted special to leave to a class action against Ford over allegedly PowerShift transmissions, agreeing to hear the case alongside two appeals in a class action against Toyota that deal with how reduction in value damages should be calculated under the Australian Consumer Law.
Adani subsidiary Carmichael Rail has lost its High Court challenge seeking to have a dispute over damaged steel rails heard in Australian Federal Court rather than by an arbitrator in London.