Just after 2pm last Friday, Federal Court judge Wendy Abraham ruled a series of stories exposing the gross negligence of Dr Munjed Al Muderis, published in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age were, in fact, true.

This was a significant result for the country’s biggest newspapers, but it was a case that should never have been brought to trial and the latest example of how a dozen money-driven defamation lawyers have made a cottage industry of extracting fees from rich clients, only to score a spectacular own goal.

Surgeon Munjed Al Muderis on the way to court in 2023.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Some are no better than tow-truck drivers sitting in wait on the edge of the freeway so they can be first at the crash scene. They generate much of their own business by scouring stories about clients with money and then approach them with the double whammy of a cash bonanza and........

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