The ACCC has won a record $26.5 million penalty against defunct vocational trainer Empower Institute for “duping” disadvantaged customers into enrolling in courses they couldn’t afford with the promise of free laptops and cash.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has won its bid to continue proceedings against the insolvent operator of the Jump! swim school franchise and its director, with a court finding the case was in the public interest.
Google will need to mount a full defence over its liability for defamatory material in search results, after it lost its bid for summary dismissal of a second claim brought by a South Australian doctor over the availability of ‘Rip-off Report’ posts.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has failed in its challenge to a ruling that dismissed its bid-rigging case over mining exploration licences involving Cascade Coal and the sons of jailed Labor politician Eddie Obeid.
A judge has thrown out an unlawful dismissal case brought by former HWL Ebsworth special counsel against the firm, describing his arguments as “trivial” and “wholly unrealistic”.
Actor Geoffrey Rush has come up short in his bid for an injunction blocking The Daily Telegraph from repeating allegations in the successful defamation case he brought against the publisher, with a judge citing the public interest in free speech and the lack of foundation for the actor’s concerns.
Businessman Clive Palmer has lost an application to put a stop to a trial in a case brought by the liquidators of collapsed Queensland Nickel after arguing the proceeding was continuing largely to pay the litigation funder bankrolling the case.
The federal Attorney-General has unveiled a new system for the allocation of more than $1 billion in external legal services to the Commonwealth government over the next five years, with just two Australian law firms approved in every practice area.
AFT Pharmaceuticals has challenged a Federal Court decision that found its Maxisegic ads were misleading and deceptive, saying the judge “set the bar too high” by requiring it to prove there was an adequate scientific foundation for its painkiller representations.
Jailed solicitor and fraudster Brody Clarke was not the mediocre, junior lawyer his boss at Sydney law firm Atanaskovic Hartnell made him out to be, a judge has said, but was considered a “young hot shot” who perpetrated a “catastrophic” $9 million fraud on media mogul Bruce Gordon in the scope of his employment.