Google's US antitrust hearing on 21 September 2011

On 21 September 2011 a hearing took place in the US capital before the Senate Judicial Committee's antitrust subcommittee concerning Google's market power. The hearing inquired about whether Google is abusing its market power by prioritising its own businesses ahead of its competitors' businesses when users conduct a search using the Google search engine.

I have included a discussion of Google and the antitrust hearing below.

Late service of expert reports - Thomas v Powercor Australia Limited (Ruling No 3) [2011] VSC 391

The matter of Thomas v Powercor Australia Limited (Ruling No 3) [2011] VSC 391 is an application by a plaintiff for the Supreme Court of Victoria to accept an expert report served by the plaintiff on the third day of a trial. The trial concerns the Black Saturday Horsham bushfires and the application was before J Forrest J. The trial commenced on or about 3 September 2011 with the issue of liability concerning a conductor falling from a pole on a power line. 

The plaintiff was required to serve its expert report in April 2011 and the experts were ordered to meet and prepare a joint expert report by late June 2011. On the third day of the trial the plaintiff delivered an expert report. The expert opinion in the report concerned the manner in which a coach screw was fixed to the pole, which was considered to be material to the issues.

The report was rejected by the Court. I have included a case discussion and extracts below.

Waiver of privilege in a pleading - Towercom Pty Ltd v Fahour [2011] VSC 455

The matter of Towercom Pty Ltd v Fahour [2011] VSC 455 was an appeal from an Associate Judge to Macaulay J of the Supreme Court of Victoria. In the proceeding the defendant alleged that the plaintiff caused it loss by selling a property at an undervalue. The defendant sought disclosure of an expert report prepared for the plaintiff. The expert report was said to be the report which arrived at the loss alleged in the statement of claim. The only element from the report that was disclosed in the statement of claim was the loss, being the difference between the sale price and the alleged market value.

The defendant sought disclosure of the report under s26(1) of the Civil Procedure Act 2010 (Vic) (the CPA) and, by reason of the refusal to disclose, sought an order under s29. The plaintiff claimed privilege over the report, but the defendant said that privilege had been waived by inclusion of the loss figure from the report in the statement of claim.

The Court held that the inclusion of the loss figure was not inconsistent with the maintenance of privilege, and therefore declined to order its disclosure. I have included a discussion and extracts of this matter below.

Reasonable apprehension of bias - Bahonko v Moorfields Community [2011] VSCA 259

The matter of Bahonko v Moorfields Community & Ors [2011] VSCA 259 (Bahonko) was an appeal in the Court of Appeal before Buchanan, Redlich and Mandie JJA. The appeal was from the dismissal of the plaintiff's proceedings in the County Court of Victoria on the basis that the trial judge is disqualified by reason of apprehended bias on the basis of views expressed in a Law Reform Committee submission concerning vexatious litigants.

I have included a case discussion and extracts below.

NSW postpones introduction of 'reasonable steps' pre-litigation requirements

The New South Wales government has announced that is is postponing the introduction of its 'reasonable steps' pre-litigation requirements which it introduced in Part 2A of the Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW).  The postponement was announced by the NSW Attorney General, Greg Smith SC on 23 August 2011. Part 2A was originally set to apply to matters filed on or after 1 October 2011, however the government has announced a postponement of 18 months.

I have included a discussion on this below.