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The High Court has refused to hear an appeal of a decision forcing an unnamed litigation funder to provide $415,000 in security for the NSW government’s defence costs in a class action over the alleged fraudulent acquisition of land for construction of the $16 billion WestConnex tunnel.

The High Court has unanimously dismissed Western Power’s challenge to a judgment which found the state-owned electricity supplier breached its duty of care to inspect power poles on private land and was partly liable for property damage from the 2014 Perth Hills bushfire.

Insurers will file de-classing applications in four class actions on behalf of small businesses seeking coverage under business interruption policies for losses flowing from COVID-19 restrictions after their test cases largely failed. 

The president of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal has resigned only eight months after her appointment to the top job by the former federal government.

A judge has pulled up legal teams in a class action against the state of Victoria on behalf of businesses that allegedly suffered loss from the 2020 hotel quarantine debacle, saying progress in the case has been “extremely slow”.

Qantas has won its application to the High Court to appeal a Full Federal Court finding that it breached the Fair Work Act when it outsourced the work of its ground crew during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The High Court has dismissed an application by accounting giant KPMG to transfer a class action over the collapse of mining company Arrium from Victoria to NSW.

Nine has failed to persuade the High Court to take up a special case that would argue the Racial Discrimination Act infringes the broadcaster’s implied right of political speech, in a blow to its defence against a class action over its coverage of litigation related to the Palm Island riots.

Avant Insurance has lost its bid to challenge a ruling which put it on the hook for indemnifying a plastic surgeon in class action proceedings over allegedly botched breast augmentations at a defunct NSW clinic.

The High Court has agreed to hear prosecutors’ appeal of a “manifestly inadequate” $1.35 million penalty against an engineering firm for bribing foreign officials in Vietnam to secure $10 million in infrastructure contracts.