Judges

The High Court was ostensibly convened in his home state of Queensland to consider special leave applications, but something told Justice Patrick Keane that was not the full story.

The Albanese government has thrown its support behind a proposal to establish a federal judicial commission that would address questionable conduct by judges.

The applicant in an investor class action against Virgin Australia plans to appeal a judge’s decision requiring litigation funder Balance Legal Capital UK to give the airline an indemnity in order to bring the proceedings, saying the indemnity “substantially changes the risk calculus" for group members.

The judge overseeing a class action against US medical device maker Boston Scientific is considering appointing a contradictor to look over the $105 million settlement reached in the case, despite seeing no obvious obstacle to approving the deal.

Santos has filed an appeal after Tiwi Islanders won a Federal Court challenge to a $4.7 billion Barossa offshore gas project, with a judge finding they were not properly consulted about the project, which they say would harm their culture and way of life.

A judge overseeing mining magnate Clive Palmer’s latest spat with the West Australian government has declined to issue an injunction preventing the state from enforcing liabilities against Palmer’s companies Mineralogy and International Minerals under the controversial ‘Palmer Act’.

A judge has paused a class action on behalf of 6,000 women allegedly injured by defective pelvic mesh devices pending determination of an application by Astora Health for a stay of the proceedings following its bankruptcy filing.

The Federal Court has overturned the ex-tempore ruling of a judge who has been taken to task in strongly-worded appeals court decisions on numerous occasions, saying his latest findings were flawed and illogical.

The state of Victoria has brought criminal action against the DHHS over its handling of the hotel quarantine debacle in 2020 and wants to push off separate class action proceedings until the charges are heard.

Property owners are fighting arguments that claims in a class action over allegedly combustible cladding do not fall under a $190 million insurance policy's definition of property damage, saying installing the cladding was like “dousing one’s house in kerosene”.