The New South Wales Bar Association has lost an appeal seeking a financial penalty and a professional reprimand against a Sydney barrister for his “poorly judged, vulgar and inappropriate” behaviour, with an appeals court finding damage to his reputation and a hike in his insurance premium dwarfed any punishment it could dole out.
Payday lender Nimble has succeeded in blocking its largest shareholder from accessing company documents relating to an impending debt refinance, with a judge finding the company’s financial woes were due to COVID-19 and not improper conduct by management.
The lead applicant in a superannuation class action against two IOOF units has successfully appealed a decision that barred the case from proceeding under a carveout in Victoria’s Supreme Court Act forbidding class actions involving trust property.
Law firm Maddocks has been ordered to pay more than $1.4 million in indemnity costs for “throwing good money after bad” in failing to consider a settlement offer in a negligence lawsuit over a client’s botched deal with Woolworths.
A judge has criticised the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for treating timetabling orders in its insider trading case against Westpac over a $16 billion interest rate swap as though they were “traffic lights in Naples”.
Victorian aged care homes accused of “major failures” during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic have lost their bid to declass claims of neglect brought in two class actions on behalf of residents and their grieving families.
A litigation funder has taken aim at a landmark judgment in an appeal of a ruling that found its funding arrangement with group members in a class action against Queensland energy suppliers was a managed investment scheme.
A judge has signed off on a $35 million settlement in a class action against the Northern Territory government over alleged human rights abuses against youth detainees, including $9.4 million in fees for Maurice Blackburn.
Judges of the NSW Supreme Court passed up their annual pay rise in 2020 as the court and the public made dramatic changes to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An appeals court has dismissed an appeal in a professional negligence lawsuit by a New South Wales developer against HWL Ebsworth over a due diligence report that led to the purchase of a $25.5 million parcel of government land at risk of flooding.