The need to properly prepare a large commercial class action is not reason enough to relieve lawyers of COVID-19 restrictions aimed at protecting the health and safety of Victorians, the Federal Court’s chief judge has said in explaining why he denied a bid by the Melbourne-based legal team behind the Crown Resorts class action to have the case declared a priority.
The Morrison government has announced significant reforms to insolvency laws as part of its economic recovery plan that take inspiration from US chapter 11 laws, but Australia’s peak legal body has said the timeframe for the changes and lack of consultation were “very concerning”.
A class action targeting security companies contracted by the Victorian government to guard returning travellers in hotel quarantine has been launched, bringing to three the number of group proceedings filed over the botched program.
Leading senior barristers and former judges are urging Victoria’s upper house to oppose the Andrews government’s COVID-19 Omnibus bill, saying legislation allowing citizens to make arrests was an overreach.
A decision earlier this month to extend Victoria’s controversial COVID-19 curfew was “bizarre, capricious, arbitrary” and was made under pressure from the state’s Premier, a Victoria Supreme Court judge has heard.
Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan has struck back at a defamation lawsuit by Clive Palmer, filing a counterclaim accusing the mining magnate of making a number of defamatory statements, including that he was a “liar” involved in “covering up” illegal activity.
The Andrews government is facing another COVID-19 related class action, this one on behalf of farm operators financially stung by Victorian and South Australian border closures.
A second class action has been launched against the Andrews Government over stage four restrictions imposed on Victorians, alleging failures to manage the state’s hotel quarantine program were directly to blame for the second wave of COVID-19 cases.
Herbert Smith Freehills will ask lawyers to spend just 60 per cent of their time in the office once they are free to return, a change to the firm’s agile working policy that acknowledges the upside of remote working in the COVID-19 era, co-head of global disputes Anna Sutherland told Lawyerly.
A judge overseeing the Ruby Princess class action has cautioned funders against “double dipping” when seeking payouts from group members, while cruise line Carnival has attempted to shift part of the blame for the COVID-19 debacle onto the Prime Minister.