Category: Appeals

Child care association loses appeal over the $150,000 damages awarded for a defamatory email circulated to its members … NSW Court of Appeal finds Child Care NSW was indeed trying to stifle competition ... more

Adelaide’s Sunday Mail loses appeal over use of pseudonyms in former Anglican priest’s defamation case … SA Supreme Court Justice David Peek says Father John Fleming should know the identities of his accusers ... more

Media companies appeal internet take-down order issued by NSW District Court Judge James Bennett on the basis that it is “futile”. Is it a super-injunction? And can three men accused of conspiracy to murder get a fair trial? ... more

Charmyne Palavi has another crack at defamation satisfaction in the NSW Court of Appeal … Should Justice Nicholas have struck out her claim against The Courier Mail? ... more

NSW Court of Criminal Appeal finds that “offensive” letters sent by a Muslim cleric to the families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan are not protected by Lange qualified privilege ... more

NSW Court of Appeal rejects an unusual common law qualified privilege defence argument for The Korean Times, but reduces damages awarded to a Strathfield solicitor by $20,000 ... more

NSW Court of Appeal upholds both forms of qualified privilege in a case involving police uttering defamatory statements … No evidence that they were motivated by malice ... more

Restaurateurs win appeal over unpalatable Matthew Evans review in The Sydney Morning Herald. NSW Court of Appeal fails the defences of comment and truth on the basis that Evans didn’t actually dine at one of the restaurants named ... more

The Queensland Court of Appeal has decided that almost all of the imputations pleaded by Brisbane entrepreneur Ross Palmer for a “light-hearted” Courier Mail story should stay ... more

Another trip to the High Court for Clive Evatt? ... NSW Court of Appeal finds District Court Judge Andrew Colefax correctly struck out two imputations pleaded by NRL “cougar” Charmyne Palavi against 2UE – because she had deliberately destroyed evidence ... more

After six years in the courts, former Serbian paramilitary commander Captain Dragan (aka Daniel Snedden) comprehensively loses his appeal over a story in The Australian alleging he committed and condoned war crimes ... more

Channel Seven succeeds in overturning the controversial decision by NSW District Court judge Len Levy to dispense with a jury on his own motion … NSW Court of Appeal finds the judge had no power to do so ... more