A judge has issued a temporary injunction stopping roadworks along the Buangor and Ararat stretch of the Western Highway improvement project in Victoria ahead of a trial over the cultural significance of the area for its traditional owners.
The son of Banksia Securities class action funder Mark Elliott questioned his father on whether it was “right” to rip up a $64 million settlement with the collapsed lender’s trustee if the deal didn’t guarantee him a $12.8 million commission, a court has heard.
The Fair Work Ombudsman has won nearly $140,000 in penalties against a Brisbane cafe and its owners for paying workers partly in food and drink over the course of six months.
An employment partner at Norton Rose Fulbright has defended his destruction of notes following an internal investigation into allegations of bullying at the law firm, telling a Federal Circuit Court judge that this was “standard practice”.
A judge has enjoined Merck Sharpe and Dohme from launching its 15-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine after finding it would infringe claims of a Wyeth patent for its Prevnar 13 vaccine, despite MSD’s argument that barring it from launching the vaccine would be contrary to the public interest.
Lawyer Alex Elliott has told a judge he didn’t know when he postdated cheques for members of the Banksia class action legal team that it was done to mislead the appeals court in the case, but has admitted that in hindsight “it doesn’t look good”.
Venture capitalist Dr Elaine Stead has taken the stand in a high-profile defamation case against the Nine-owned Fairfax, saying that she felt “shame, embarrassment, humiliation and guilt” over two allegedly defamatory Australian Financial Review articles about her role in the collapsed investment firm Blue Sky.
The Labor party has come up short in its effort to torpedo new regulations requiring litigation funders to hold a financial services licence and register class actions as managed investment schemes.
An employment partner with Norton Rose Fulbright, who has been referred by a judge to the legal watchdog for possible professional misconduct in a case by a former colleague, is under scrutiny in a second Fair Work suit, this time for allegedly destroying evidence.
Car giant Toyota, which is facing a class action over allegedly faulty diesel particulate filters in some of its vehicles, has agreed to step up its compliance with consumer laws, including how it communicates with car owners about mechanical issues.