In Seven
Network Limited v News Limited [2007] FCA 1062, Channel 7 lost a long-running and expensive court case which alleged anti-competitive conduct against its former partners in a media venture.
The noteworthy feature is the effort that the trial judge (Judge Sackville) went to in describing the process of the litigation and its cost:
The case is an example of what is best described as
‘mega-litigation’. By that expression, I mean civil
litigation, usually involving multiple and separately represented parties, that
consumes many months of court time and generates vast quantities of
documentation in paper or electronic form. An invariable characteristic of
mega-litigation is that it imposes a very large burden, not only on the parties,
but on the court system and, through that system, the community...
The trial lasted for 120 hearing days and took place in an electronic
courtroom. Electronic trials have many advantages, but reducing the amount of
documentation produced or relied on by the parties is not one of them. The
outcome of the processes of discovery and production of documents in this case
was an electronic database containing 85,653 documents, comprising 589,392
pages.
Apart from losing the case (and a likely huge costs order against it), the judge was critical of Seven ("there is more than a hint of hypocrisy in certain of
Seven’s contentions" (Para 157)), its CEO, its counsel and the general conduct of the case. (He also complained about other parties' executives, witnesses and document retention issues).
All in all, it shows that once litigation starts, you're never really sure where it's going to end up. The judge refers to the Duke case which had multiple appeals.
