Category: Interlocutory/Case-Management

Federal Court of Australia embraces the jury … Justice Steven Rares uses his discretion to order that a defamation action brought by a brothel owner be heard in the FCA by 12 jurors ... more

An Australian Jockey Club member’s attempt to sue twice over the same publication is an abuse of process, says NSW Supreme Court Justice Lucy McCallum. Noel Bracks’ action against AJC Chairman Ross Smyth-Kirk is dismissed ... more

Another blow to former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib’s defamation aspirations. NSW District Court judge Judith Gibson strikes out his action against 2UE and 2GB, calling it an abuse of process and “an exercise in absurdity” ... more

Queensland Court of Appeal freezes payments to the Corby family from Schapelle Corby’s book My Story and interviews her sister Mercedes gave to New Idea. The Corbys have missed the June 15 appeal deadline ... more

Triple M gets summary judgment for professional cyclist Mark French set aside. French’s solicitor acted in a “precipitate and unwarranted, if nonetheless legal” manner, says Justice Bongiorno ... more

Use of AVOs not readily available to impede journalists seeking footage for a story. No reasonable ground to fear harassment. Costs order against Jim Byrne ... more

The fact that proceedings were likely to be lengthy, complex and acrimonious did not mean that a jury should not sit as the tribunal of fact in a section 7A trial ... more

Trade union action against The Sydney Morning Herald struck out after failure to plead special damage ... more

Journalist Paul Barry escapes charge of criminal libel after ruling by Chief Justice of the ACT ... more

Justice Levine finds that defamation proceedings amounted to menacing of a newspaper’s advertisers. Plaintiff’s case dismissed as an abuse of process ... more