A judge has made the “regrettable” call to postpone the trial in a case brought by workers challenging the Victorian government’s COVID-19 health directions until after they expire, blaming the workers for creating a series of “fruitless” delays.
A group of 134 workers in healthcare, education and construction have argued a judge should grant them a temporary exemption from Victoria’s direction mandating essential employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 to work outside their homes.
Mining magnate Clive Palmer and two of his mining firms have lost a High Court challenge seeking to overturn a Western Australian law which prevented him from suing the state government for $30 billion over mining tenements in the Pilbara.
Victoria’s attorney-general has appointed star senior counsel for the banking royal commission, Rowena Orr QC, as the state’s highest legal adviser.
Lawyerly’s Litigation Firms of 2020 delivered significant victories for clients last year in bet-the-company matters, thriving in a tumultuous year that saw courts and litigants adapt to virtual trials and other new norms that are sure to outlast the COVID-19 pandemic.
Qantas has been hit with a test case to determine whether axing 2,000 ground staff and replacing them with “insecure” labour hire workers is unlawful.
Aircraft engineers for Qantas are challenging a ruling that the airline had no “genuine choice” when it stood them down in March during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Qantas has praised a Federal Court judgment ruling that the airline had no “genuine choice” other than standing down its workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the judgment was a “victory for common sense”.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is seeking a contempt finding against a former solicitor for defunct vocational trainer Empower Institute over alleged billing practices.
Tasmanian state-owned ports company TasPorts has admitted to charging additional fees to the owner of a local port, but has denied the ACCC’s allegations that these actions constituted a misuse of market power designed to stymie competition.