Former Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson SC, who recently called for an inquiry into Attorney-General Christian Porter’s fitness for office in the face of rape allegations, will represent the ABC against Porter’s defamation claims.
Facing laws strongly favouring plaintiffs and defamation claims based on allegations of an historic rape with no witnesses, the ABC has an uphill battle in defending itself against Attorney-General Christian Porter’s case alleging the national broadcaster engaged in a campaign to destroy his reputation, experts say.
Attorney-General Christian Porter has filed defamation proceedings in the Federal Court against the ABC and journalist Louise Milligan over an online article he says made false allegations against him.
Generic pharmaceutical company Sandoz has hit back in an intellectual property lawsuit by Merck Sharp & Dohme, filing a cross-claim that seeks to undo an extension of time granted to the US drug manufacturer for a patent relating to its multibillion dollar Januvia and Janumet diabetes drugs.
The judge overseeing two class actions over legal and accounting advice given ahead of Slater & Gordon’s disastrous Quindell acquisition has said he will hear the cases together, citing the “dangers” of the approach taken in litigation against GetSwift, which resulted in a judge being ordered to step down.
The Full Federal Court has tossed an appeal by Johnson & Johnson unit Ethicon challenging a landmark decision that put it on the hook for paying damages to 10,000 women who suffered injury through defects in its prolapse mesh and incontinence tape implants.
A judge has allowed a hearing on separate questions concerning the validity of a non-compete agreement in a lawsuit brought against two patent lawyers who jumped ship by boutique IP firm Pizzeys Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys, despite expressing concerns that “separate questions are fraught”.
GetSwift has been criticised for its “quite unfair attack” on a Federal Court judge who refused to disqualify himself from hearing a shareholder class action against the logistics software company after presiding over ASIC’s civil penalty proceeding against the company.
A group of women harmed by pelvic mesh devices produced by Johnson & Johnson have accused it of persisting with a “wreckage” of a case in which one of its own doctors admitted the pharmaceutical company knew of the risks posed by the implants at they time they were sold worldwide.
The judge who found J&J’s pelvic mesh implants defective in a high stakes class action ruling mde a “pervasive error” in disregarding the knowledge and views of the applicants’ doctors, an appeals court has heard.