The Mail on Sunday loses appeal in Prince Charles privacy case involving his personal journals. The English Court of Appeal found that the Prince of Wales’ right to privacy clearly outweighed the public interest, notwithstanding his candid comments about the Chinese ... more
Acting Justice Hunt interrogates the meaning of the word “shonky” before dismissing shonky building subcontractor, Robin Bass’ second appeal. The marathon case against Nine commenced 16 years ago ... more
Federal Court decides that Sutherland Shire “celebrity” and sometime ice skater, Laura Bingle, can proceed with her defamation action against Zoo Weekly. An imputation that she agreed to “pose topless” for a “smutty” men’s magazine was clearly defamatory, said Justice Edmonds ... more
Fairfax and Age newspapers agree to suppression of some of the tobacco documents but not others as Slater & Gordon takes up the fight over the alleged “iniquity” in dealings between BAT companies and their lawyers ... more
Tobacco companies searching for the leaker of the Clayton Utz documents, which supposedly reveal “iniquitous” conduct in the Rolah McCabe case. Slater & Gordon injuncted from disseminating the documents, which apparently have already been provided to the police and legal authorities ... more
Melbourne silk Dyson Hore-Lacy loses application to strike out comment defence pleaded by Phil Cleary and his publisher Allen & Unwin ... more
An hotelier whose establishment was likened to “Fawlty Towers” has been entirely successful in a s.7A trial against The Sunday Telegraph. All eight imputations pleaded by Archer Field, former manager of Jenolan Caves House, get up ... more
Fairfax seeks documents about tobacco company “iniquity” with which to fight injunctions which have stopped further newspaper reports of explosive allegations about lawyer conduct in cigarette litigation ... more
Scot Wheelhouse SC, appearing for The Courier-Mail, pulls no punches in his final submissions, accusing Acting Justice Cooper of prejudging the case. After five weeks and more than 150 exhibits, much is unravelling ... more
A David Richardson beat-up sees Justice Rothman award former NSW rugby league superstar Mark “Sparkles” McGaw “damages of the highest order” – $385,000 – over a Today Tonight story that did “extraordinary” damage to his reputation … more
Wollongong businessman Ron Cross’ defamation trial puts the ethics of Gold Coast “marketeering” under the microscope and recalls what Somerset Maugham said of Monaco: “A sunny place for shady people.” ... more
House of Lords gives Reynolds qualified privilege a radical overhaul. The law should encourage responsible journalism and the standards required should be applied by judges in a practical and flexible manner ... more
