By: Meisha Tjiong, William Yeo and Hannah Turl At a glance On 4 and 17 October 2024, the District Court of NSW delivered its decisions in Stanberg v State of New South Wales [2024] NSW DC 462, and entered a judgment for the State with the Plaintiff to pay the State’s party/party costs and partial […]
By: Jonathan Maher and Tushka Sridharan At a glance The Court of Appeal reduced the jury’s $1.1 million award of pain and suffering damages to $550,000, deeming the original amount “manifestly excessive”, aligning it with judge-alone awards in similar cases. The jury’s $1.3 million exemplary damages award was set aside entirely, with the Court of […]
By: Bill Conor and Julian Amato At a glance The court reaffirmed that claims for building defects made pursuant to the statutory warranties under section 32 of the Building Work Contractors Act 1995 (SA) must be filed within a strict 5-year period from practical completion, emphasising the Act’s balance between builder and homeowner interests. The 10-year […]
By: Georgie Austin, Zoe Burchill and Deniz Coskundag At a glance The Federal Court of Australia recently found that Senator Pauline Hanson breached s 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act for a post published on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). In 2022, Senator Mehreen Faruqi posted a tweet about the monarchy, in which Senator […]
By: Patrick Thompson and James Clohesy At a glance The UK Supreme Court has delivered another judgment dealing with when a public authority can owe a private duty of care to members of the public. The decision reaffirms what is becoming a bright line distinction in the UK between cases where the public authority, by […]
By: Georgie Austin, Zoe Burchill and Anthea Dres At a glance On 22 October 2024, Justice Abraham granted Bruce Lehrmann the authority to appeal his defamation case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson. The respondents had sought security in the amount of $200,000 for their costs of the appeal proceeding and this application was subsequently […]
By: Patrick Thompson At a glance In Lynn Waller v Romy Barrett [2024] VCC 962, the plaintiff successfully argued that the defendant breached her confidences and invaded her privacy by disclosing private details from counselling sessions to media outlets, leading to damages awarded. Judge Tran recognised a distinct cause of action for invasion of privacy […]
By: Richard Leder, Georgie Austin, Blake Pappas and Zoe Burchill At a glance Bruce Lehrmann has been allowed to appeal his defamation case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson. The Federal Court dismissed the requirement for him to pay $200,000 in security costs before the appeal. The initial ruling by Justice Michael Lee found that […]
By: Andrew Brennan, Sarah Metcalfe, Nick Lux and Jordan Bova At a glance The Victorian government will abolish and replace the Victorian Building Authority following an independent review that found significant management and cultural failures. A new regulator, the Building & Plumbing Commission, will be created by merging the Victorian Building Authority with other agencies, […]
By: Sian Gilbert, Grace Gunn, Dexter Cabal and Ellie Jongma At a glance Employees entitled to parental leave under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act) may take up to 110 days of their 12-month unpaid leave entitlement in a flexible manner in the 24 months following the birth (or adoption) of their child […]
