HCA hands down two judgments

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Daily wrap  

• Derek Bromley loses final bid for freedom after nearly 40 years in South Australian jail for murder | Crime - Australia | The Guardian
   

  • a copy of the judgment summary can be found here.
     

• Mitsubishi cleared of breaking law in gas-guzzling case | The Canberra Times | Canberra, ACT
   

  • a copy of the judgment summary can be found here.
     

• Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial day 15 – as it happened | Australia news | The Guardian
   

  • Producer questioned over Brittany Higgins' The Project interview
     

• Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyers to challenge witnesses in bid to prevent Toowoomba rape case proceeding to trial | Queensland | The Guardian
   

• Knitting Nannas claim partial victory in NSW anti-protest law challenge | New South Wales | The Guardian
   

  • a copy of the judgment and judgment summary can be found here - Kvelde v State of New South Wales - NSW Caselaw
     

• Magistrate acquits 10-year-old who tried to ram patrol car, slams police handling of case
   

• Court hears man who killed former pro-surfer Chris Davidson wanted to protect children
   

• Royal commission into domestic violence announced in South Australia after six deaths in recent weeks
   

Editor’s picks

• Live Stream - Judgment Kathleen Megan Folbigg v R on Thursday, 14 December 2023 from 10.00 AM

   

  • Context here - Kathleen Folbigg: Big step in bid to clear name | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site
     

• Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v FitBit LLC [2023] FCA 1535
   

• Legal Services Commissioner v Sewell (No 2) [2023] QCAT 374
   

  • just read the catchwords to get a flavour of this one. Catchwords include “where the respondent wrote to the Fair Work Ombudsman and claimed falsely that the judge was her “boss” and that he required her to make submissions when she was unwell”

   

• ASIC sued Star’s board a year ago. The case will be heard in 2025 [AFR paywall]
   

  • ASIC’s case against Star’s board, launched 12 months ago, has come to a standstill because a judge (Justice Lee) is so busy he can’t hear it until February 2025.
     

• R v Martinez - NSW Caselaw
   

  • [84] “However, my point is not that.  My point is, if it be right that the evidence was properly excluded, and if it be right that there was not sufficient circumstances to justify a permanent stay, then the only “check and balance” left in the system to prevent an injustice was prosecutorial discretion. That discretion was sadly lacking here. I do not believe it was properly considered at all. Rather, I think the prosecution took the lazy and perhaps politically expedient course of identifying that the Complainant alleged she had been sexually assaulted and without properly considering the question of whether there was any evidence to support that allegation, just prosecuted so as to let the jury decide.”
     

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