Subject

Former prime minister Scott Morrison has defended his decision to appoint himself as shadow minister of significant government portfolios during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the times were extraordinary and the actions were taken as an emergency safeguard.

Shine Lawyers is on track to file a class action over a COVID-19 outbreak at Newmarch House in Sydney after findings by the NSW Coroner are handed down at the end of the year.

The High Court has dismissed a constitutional challenge by an animal welfare group to legislation banning publication of secret recordings, ruling that the law's protection of privacy did not violate the activists' freedom of speech.

The Australian Law Reform Commission has recommended the establishment of a federal judicial commission as a "transparent and independent" way of addressing concerns about the conduct of judges.

Insurance Australia Group faces a class action by shareholders over its disclosures connected to the impact of COVID-19 claims by policyholders.

The corporate regulator will challenge a bid by payday lenders Cigno and BHF to stay its case pending their appeal to the High Court.

Payday lenders Cigno and BHF have filed High Court challenges to a judgment which found they could not bypass lender obligations contained in the Credit Code, warning the judgment could subject buy now, pay later schemes to the Code.

Publisher HarperCollins has filed a special leave application with the High Court seeking to challenge a decision that revived a defamation case by a psychiatrist over a book covering the controversial deep sleep therapy at the Chelmsford Private Hospital in the 1970s.

Mining company Kupang Resources has asked the High Court to weigh in on its bid for tax office documents as it litigates to recoup millions of dollars allegedly embezzled by the company's former shadow director.

A court has overturned a ruling by a federal judge repeatedly in the spotlight for his decisions, finding in the latest case that a fraud claim against a property purchaser in a dispute with bankruptcy trustees was a notion developed, pursued and upheld by the judge himself.