Damages of $90,000 awarded to Melbourne nightclub manager … Police allegations about drug use in and around the nightclub … Allegation that the manager approached witnesses in proceedings before gambling and liquor commission … Split verdict … Substantially true imputations had a mitigating effect but did not swamp the imputations found for the plaintiff … Modest amount for aggravation … Stephen Murray reports … more
Year: 2019
Tsamis v Victoria (No. 7)
Damages of $90,000 awarded to Melbourne nightclub manager ... Police allegations about drug use in and around the nightclub ... Allegation that the manager approached witnesses in proceedings before gambling and liquor commission ... Split verdict ... Substantially true imputations had a mitigating effect but did not swamp the imputations found for the plaintiff ... Modest amount for aggravation ... Stephen Murray reports ... more
Sarah Hanson-Young v David Leyonhjelm
Justice Richard White reserved on costs and injunction ... Application for indemnity costs ... Leyonhjelm's "offensive and insulting" statement in a settlement offer ... "Offer of nothing" ... Failure to consider a "commercial, prudent" settlement ... Hanson-Young reelected ... Leyonhjelm failed at the ballot box ... Stephen Murray reports ... more
Wagner & Ors v Nine Network Australia & Ors (No. 2)
Indemnity costs awarded for a portion of the Wagner v Nine proceedings ... Inadequate settlement offers from Nine and Cater ... Ineffective apology ... Separate settlement proposals made by the plaintiffs ... Apology essential to settlement ... Defendants baulked at the word "apology" ... Failure by the defendants to make further offers ... Calderbank principles ... Nine and Cater acted unreasonably and imprudently ... Stephen Murray reports ... more
Defamation reform: back to the future
The defamation law reforms of 2005 were heralded as a bright new future for the media ... What happened and can the proposed new reforms get anywhere close to the holy grail of "balance"? ... Memories of David Levine, Michael McHugh and those wide-eyed pundits ... Heavy lifting deferred ... Forum shopping at the Federal Court ... Janek Drevikovsky says the 2020 reforms will still leave plaintiffs ruling the roost ... more
Roger Bailey v WIN Television & Ors
Sacking of local government manager ... Proceedings abandoned against one of the defendants ... Story put to air after plaintiff did not respond to a request for comment about his termination ... Deadline ... Confusion about which TV station was seeking a response ... Staff survey critical of management ... Evidence from councillors ... Hearing concluded ... Justice Fagan reserved ... Stephen Murray reports ... more
Huang Jiefang v Nine Digital Pty Ltd
Federal Court ... Wife of Chinese billionaire sues over claim she "fled" Australia to avoid tax liabilities ... Husband accused of political influence peddling and banned from Australia ... Freezing order on assets in Australia and Hong Kong ... Statement of claim ... Stephen Murray reports ... more
Rosemary Dillon v Macquarie Media Ltd
Council manager sues over Ray Hadley's broadcasts alleging she misled an official inquiry into the handling of asbestos at the Blue Mountains City Council ... Inquiry by Richard Beasley SC ... "Bald-face lie" ... Hadley's allegations, bar one, found to be unsubstantiated ... "A classic case of opinion" ... Hadley defending himself from attacks ... Justice Wigney suggests mediation ... Stephen Murray reports ... more
Jay v Petrikas
District Court of NSW ... Delay in bringing defamation action ... Limitation period ... Principles of law considered ... No explanation for failure to apply for preliminary discovery ... Plaintiffs failed to discharge burden for extension of time to bring proceedings ... Parisa Hart reports ... more
Hive & Wellness Australia Pty Ltd (formerly Capilano Honey Ltd) and Ben McKee v Simon Mulvany
Supreme Court of Victoria ... Defamation proceedings over claims made about the quality of the plaintiffs' honey ... Unsuccessful application by the defendant for a jury of six ... Complicated case, numerous publications, voluminous material, and a self-represented defendant ... "Judges are, like everyone else in the community, consumers of food products" ... Parisa Hart reports ... more
Digital publishers and innocent dissemination
Attorney General Porter's vision for stage two of the defamation reforms ... Social media platforms and liability for third party posts ... It's timely to reprise Patrick George's submission to the Defamation Working Party ... Enforceability tripwires in other jurisdictions ... Immunity ... Role for an independent regulator to adjudicate take-down requests ... more
Ben Roberts-Smith v The Federal Capital Press of Australia; Ben Roberts-Smith v The Age Company; Ben Roberts-Smith v Fairfax Media Publications
Interlocutory application for the respondent's documents ... Disclosure of source material ... Whether confidentiality has been lost ... Testing the claim of journalistic privilege ... Stephen Murray reports ... more