Pub­li­ca­tions

Sep 3, 2019

Secu­ri­ty for costs and non-res­i­dent plaintiffs

What is secu­ri­ty for costs? It is a fact of life that plain­tiffs and defen­dants in legal pro­ceed­ings rep­re­sent­ed by lawyers will incur costs, which in some cas­es can be substantial. Gen­er­al­ly, the unsuc­cess­ful par­ty in those pro­ceed­ings is ordered to pay the costs of the suc­cess­ful par­ty. Those costs are usu­al­ly…

Aug 6, 2019

Cor­po­ra­tions and defamation

Sev­er­al high-pro­file Aus­tralians have become embroiled in defama­tion cas­es in recent months.  A pub­li­ca­tion about a per­son com­mu­ni­cat­ed to a third par­ty is defam­a­to­ry if an ordi­nary rea­son­able per­son would think it tends to: injure that per­son­’s rep­u­ta­tion by dis­parag­ing them;cause oth­ers to shun or avoid them;sub­ject them to hatred, ridicule or contempt. Can a com­pa­ny sue for defamation? What…

Mar 11, 2019

Home own­ers: what to do about defects

It seems a straight­for­ward arrange­ment, a builder is con­tract­ed to build a res­i­den­tial build­ing. They build it and hand it over to its own­ers. Con­tract fulfilled. But what if it isn’t that simple? As with most prod­ucts, a build­ing can look great on the out­side but con­tain hid­den defects. The dif­fer­ence is that build­ing defects can…

Feb 18, 2016

Impor­tant news for small busi­ness new laws offer pro­tec­tion against unfair contracts

In Brief The land­scape for small busi­ness­es in Aus­tralia is chang­ing. Through­out 2016, those of you look­ing to the future will no doubt be plan­ning ahead to ensure your busi­ness does not miss a beat – or an opportunity! From 2017, small busi­ness­es will have the same pro­tec­tion against unfair con­tract…

Jun 19, 2015

Can I write an arti­cle about my busi­ness competitor?

In Brief In the course of doing busi­ness, you are not allowed to engage in mis­lead­ing or decep­tive con­duct. But what if you utilise your per­son­al exper­tise and expe­ri­ence to make gen­er­al com­ments about your indus­try – for instance, by pub­lish­ing an arti­cle in a trade mag­a­zine, or deliv­er­ing a pub­lic lec­ture…

Feb 24, 2015

Claims made by a per­son deprived of land title by fraud

In Brief In Aus­tralia, we use the Tor­rens sys­tem of land title. It is a cen­tral tenet of the Tor­rens sys­tem that it is a sys­tem of title by reg­is­tra­tion, not a sys­tem of reg­is­tra­tion of title. It is reg­is­tra­tion itself which vests title in a pro­pri­etor of land. Sec­tion 42(1) of the Real Prop­er­ty…

Jul 14, 2014

Prac­tice note: Approval of pro­vi­sion­al liq­uida­tor’s remuneration

In Brief In the Mat­ter of CB Con­struc­tions (NSW) Pty Ltd [2014] NSWSC 913 is a recent deci­sion of Jus­tice Black which pro­vides a time­ly reminder of the mat­ters which need to be addressed when seek­ing court approval for the remu­ner­a­tion of a pro­vi­sion­al liq­uida­tor under sec­tion 473(2) of the Cor­po­ra­tions Act 2001 (Cth)…

Jul 2, 2014

Extend­ing a con­ven­ing peri­od before it expires — rel­e­vant principles

In Brief The admin­is­tra­tor of a com­pa­ny under admin­is­tra­tion must con­vene a meet­ing of the com­pa­ny’s cred­i­tors with­in the con­ven­ing peri­od set out in sec­tion 439A(5) of the Cor­po­ra­tions Act 2001 (Cth) or as extend­ed by the Court under sec­tion 439A(6). The courts have shown a will­ing­ness to extend the con­ven­ing peri­od pro­vid­ed there…