A judge who has been an enthusiastic lab rat in the virtual hearing experiment forced on the country’s courts by the COVID-19 pandemic has expressed doubts that he is accurately reading witnessses giving remote evidence.
Western Australia premier Mark McGowan has been ordered to appear in person in a Sydney court to give evidence at trial in a defamation case by mining billionaire Clive Palmer, but a judge has pushed back the hearing so McGowan can attend state parliament.
Google has argued there would be a “devastating” effect on the internet if the High Court upholds a judgment awarded to gangland lawyer George Defteros that found the tech giant liable for linking to an allegedly defamatory article.
Australia’s leading regional airline faces further litigation after an appeals court found it sent a threatening letter to prospective cadet pilots, urging them to stay in cheap, “inappropriate accommodation” in order to demonstrate their commitment to the company.
The High Court has granted Google special leave to challenge a $40,000 defamation judgment awarded to gangland lawyer George Defteros, with the search giant arguing it should not be held liable for a “mere hyperlink” to an article.
A former TechnologyOne executive has lost his application for special leave to appeal a judgment throwing out a $5.2 million bullying judgment in his favour, but has vowed to seek up to $25 million in a retrial against his former employer.
The High Court has granted the ATO’s bid to impose a worldwide freezing order against Chinese property developer Changran Huang, saying the court’s power to freeze assets did not depend on whether there was a realistic possibility of enforcing a judgment in a foreign jurisdiction.
A judge was “mistaken” to find that AFT Pharmaceuticals’ ads for its painkiller Maxigesic were misleading, with the Full Federal Court ruling there was an adequate scientific foundation for the ads’ claims that the drug provided faster, better pain relief than paracetamol and ibuprofen alone.
Law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has won its appeal of a $160,000 judgment in favour of former partner Thomas Martin, with the Full Federal Court finding Martin’s allegations of deceit arose from “an excess of suspicion” and “causal connections of the most tenuous kind”.
In rejecting a bid by The Star Entertainment Group to recoup losses stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Court’s Chief Justice did “real and unexplained violence” to the construction of a business interruption policy the casino giant had taken out with Chubb, the Full Court has heard.