The High Court has agreed to weigh in on whether government restrictions on social gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic frustrated a $11.25 million contract for sale of a hotel in the Sydney suburb of Pyrmont.
The NSW Supreme Court’s new Chief Justice has used his maiden speech to lament how remote hearings and working from home has led to the “insidious depersonalisation” of the legal profession, with half-empty chambers and solicitor’s offices losing their soul and personality.
Justice Andrew Bell has been appointed the new Chief Justice of the NSW Supreme Court, after the current head of the court announced last year it was time to step down after almost 11 years in office.
Judges of the NSW Supreme Court passed up their annual pay rise in 2020 as the court and the public made dramatic changes to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An appeals court has thrown out a challenge to a judgment awarding a cryptocurrency trader $1.96 million in cash and a property purchased for $1.5 million over a deal with a convicted fraudster involving “millions of dollars of cash in bags and suitcases”.
NSW Chief Justice Tom Bathurst will retire after almost 11 years in office, saying it was time for the Supreme Court to be “reinvigorated”.
The Murray Darling Basin Authority can’t rely on defences claiming it is a “public or other authority” to limit the liability of a class action brought over alleged negligent water management, an appeals court has found.
The NSW Supreme Court has outlined its roadmap back to holding live hearings but has said that those attending court in person will need to have both COVID-19 vaccination doses.
The Murray-Darling Basin Authority will soon make its case directly to an appeals court that it can rely on defences limiting its liability to farmers in a class action alleging negligent oversight of the river system, a question that could have implications for other climate change cases against government agencies.
Sydney retail personality Con Constantine has lost an appeal seeking to bolster a $4.25 million judgment in his favour over the $81.8 million Parklea Markets sale in 2016.