A barrister and solicitor who accused the Victoria Supreme Court of bias have avoided a contempt of court ruling, despite a judge finding their conduct “fell short of the standards of competence and diligence” expected of lawyers.
A judge has ordered the federal government to file an amended defence in one of two class actions over its use of allegedly toxic firefighting foam on military bases, after being accused of lodging a deficient pleading.
Class actions are the next battleground following Thursday’s Federal Court ruling that the government owes a duty of care to protect children from the risks of climate change, according to a number of legal experts.
The federal Minister for the Environment owes a duty of care to children who could suffer “catastrophic” harms from increased greenhouse gas emissions that would result from approving the expansion of Whitehaven’s Vickery coal mine, a judge has ruled.
Ben Roberts-Smith has won approval to split his case at the upcoming trial in his defamation case against three publishers over articles accusing him of war crimes, with a judge saying the seriousness of the allegations against him weighed in favour of the unorthodox move.
The High Court has denied the ATO’s request that it weigh in on Australia’s transfer pricing regime, leaving in place a Full Court victory for mining giant Glencore that left it paying $2 million of a $92 million bill relating to the sale of copper from a mine in Cobar, NSW.
Adani’s controversial Carmichael coal mine in Queensland has hit another potential snag, with the Federal Court on Tuesday sending the company’s moves to pump 12.5 billion litres of water a year from the Suttor River back to square one.
War veteran Ben Roberts-Smith “wiped” a laptop last month containing possible national secrets found on USB sticks retrieved from his former home, the judge overseeing the former soldier’s defamation case against three publishers has heard.
War veteran Ben Roberts-Smith is seeking all “covert recordings” held by Nine and revealed in a number of news publications last month in which the former soldier said it was his “sole mission” to destroy the journalists behind allegedly defamatory articles accusing him of war crimes.
The failed franchisor behind the Jump Swim Schools brand has been hit with a $23 million penalty for what a Federal Court judge found were “very serious” consumer law contraventions.