Judges

Common fund orders in class actions are legal and not unconstitutional, six judges found Friday after a history-making joint sitting of two appeals courts.

GetSwift has warned it may seek an injunction blocking Johnson Winter & Slattery from acting as instructing lawyers to the corporate cop in its enforcement action against the logistics company, saying the firm provided advisory work for it last year.

A judge's decision imposing damages of over $2.8 million on a Melbourne computer retailer facing an intellectual property lawsuit by Microsoft has been slammed as "regrettable" and a judicial "failure," in a judgment overturning the ruling.

Maurice Blackburn has lost a long-running fight with the Australian Taxation Office over a tax bill on two massive class action settlements secured by the firm for thousands of Black Saturday bushfire victims.

The Victorian Supreme Court has awarded a couple $145,000 in damages from a construction firm that denied them access to their brand new $5.8 million apartment and art gallery in Melbourne's Eureka Tower for 130 weeks.

Danish pharmaceutical giant Lundbeck secured $51.7 million in settlements to end infringement litigation with three generic makers over its patent for the top-selling Lexapro, the company has revealed.

A state judge has ordered the litigation funders behind a group of federal class actions against AMP to pay the legal costs of their failed transfer applications, saying while he could not make the applicants pay, he could compel the funders to cough up the money.

Otsuka Pharmaceuticals and Bristol Myers-Squibb can retain their defences in an ongoing patent dispute over antipsychotic drug Abilify, after the Federal Court dismissed a strike out bid by the Commonwealth of Australia over the allegedly "inconsistent" pleadings.

Westpac-owned mortgage lender RAMS Financial Services breached a franchise agreement by failing to supply a Brisbane-based franchisee with information about nearby broker-originated customers, a judge has found.

A judge has rejected a bid by Bellamy's to limit the recoverable costs of rival law firms running joint class actions against the baby food maker, saying he would deal with any unjustified duplication later, not now.