Trials

The operators of a childcare business have failed to persuade a jury that a press conference by the Australian Federal Police about an alleged multimillion dollar government benefit fraud was defamatory.

Hancock Prospecting can't challenge an order that documents produced in arbitration are fair game, as the mining company's chief, Gina Rinehart, battles her children in a trial over ownership of a valuable tenement set to start Monday.

Executives of collapsed Bruck Textile Technologies have been committed to stand trial on charges alleging they schemed their way out of making more than $3 million in redundancy payments to their 58 employees. 

On the first day of trial in parallel class actions and regulatory proceedings, the Fair Work Ombudsman panned the payment systems adopted by Woolworths and Coles for salaried managers, saying they were “entirely foreign” to the industrial award and that the supermarket giants had “no meaningful proper records” for overtime. 

Despite assurances, wealth manager Insignia Financial did not engage PricewaterhouseCoopers to review the performance of its 'Buy Model" investment portfolio after an equities analyst complained it had been overstated, a court overseeing a shareholder class action trial has been told.

Former SAS corporal Ben Roberts-Smith has lost his defamation case against Nine-owned Fairfax, with a judge finding Thursday it was true that Australia's most decorated soldier committed civilian murders in Afghanistan.

Trial in a protracted class action against Deloitte over the collapse of construction group Hastie has been abandoned, signalling a settlement is in the works.

One of the two remaining class actions against the Department of Defence over the use of alleged toxic firefighting foam at military bases across the country has settled for $132.7 million on the eve of trial, with the final case going back to mediation.

Racing NSW has accused its Victorian counterpart of planning an anti-competitive agreement with five other states to exclude it from the thoroughbred racing industry, as it seeks documents to bring potential claims.

Unless the parties can reach a last minute settlement over the weekend, trial in a class action against the Department of Defence over the use of alleged toxic firefighting foam at military bases across the country will begin Monday.