According to a report in The Age online, Justice Kiefel of the Federal Court of Australia has been appointed as successor to Mr Justice Callinan, who must retire by 31 August 2007.  Read more »

Supreme Court Justice Robert Redlich has been appointed to the Court of Appeal and Anthony Cavanough QC is a Judge of the Supreme Court.

Originally by CCH Australia, 10:55 AM

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According to this article on CNET News, ‘The Xhibit (‘eXchanging Hearing Information By Internet Technology’) system, now rolled out to 50 Crown courts in England and Wales, allows court clerks to update information about hearings as they happen.

The system enables police, prosecutors and witness groups to get case details in minutes rather than days. Updates can be received by text email or pager, and the public can follow court hearings online or via public display screens in court. …  Read more »

The Sydney Morning Herald has published a fascinating review of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, with reference to the number of their decisions subsequently overturned by the High Court of Australia:  Read more »

DaveM writes "Bush's most recent Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers, successfully argued that people who were sold defective software by Microsoft weren't "injured," and couldn't participate in a class action against the company. The case involved unstable compression features in MS DOS 6.0, which were corrected by a $9.95 update, MS DOS 6.2. Plaintiffs wanted Microsoft to offer the updates for free, but eventually lost to Miers' arguments."

Originally by CmdrTaco at Slashdot: Your Rights Online, 9:55 PM  Read more »

Split decisions are nearly inevitable in the [United States] Supreme Court.

Originally by NYT > Opinion, 9:27 PM

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The Honourable Justice Susan Crennan, previously a justice of the Federal Court of Australia, has been appointed to the High Court by Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock. Justice Crennan, aged 60, can serve for up to ten years, and will replace McHugh J who is due to retire in November.  Read more »

'Election-law superblogger Rick Hasen has a very interesting post on the question whether the next nominee for the Supreme Court -- the replacement for Justice O'Connor -- will provoke a "nuclear showdown". By "nuclear showdown", Rick means a filibuster by Senate Democrats that provokes the so-called "nuclear option", ie the use of a parliamentary maneuver to amend the Senate Rules and amend the cloture rules for judicial nominations.'

Originally by Legal Theory Blog, 12:21 PM  Read more »

Labor’s justice spokeswoman Nicola Roxon says the government should look beyond the usual narrow confines which dictate appointments to Australia’s highest court when it replaces Justice Michael McHugh later this year.

Originally by CCH Australia, 12:58 AM

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According to ABC News, 'Queensland has reached a financial and employment settlement with former chief magistrate Di Fingleton.'

Ms Fingleton had been seeking compensation and/or her old job back after the High Court found she was wrongly jailed for retaliating against a witness.

Queensland Attorney-General Linda Lavarch has announced the Government will make an ex-gratia payment of $475 000 to Ms Fingleton.  Read more »