Pub­li­ca­tions

Nov 30, 2011

ASIC involve­ment marks new twist in Chameleon Min­ing case

In brief — Finan­cial ser­vices licence exemp­tions do not have ret­ro­spec­tive effect ASIC has become involved in the case of Inter­na­tion­al Lit­i­ga­tion Part­ners Pty Ltd v Chameleon Min­ing NL, sub­mit­ting to the court that exemp­tions from the need to hold a finan­cial ser­vices licence do not have ret­ro­spec­tive effect. Lit­i­ga­tion fund­ing agree­ment is a finan­cial product…

Nov 30, 2011

Grow­ing your busi­ness through acquisition

In brief – Acqui­si­tion can accel­er­ate the growth of your business One way to accel­er­ate the growth of your busi­ness dra­mat­i­cal­ly is to buy anoth­er busi­ness. This can help you gain a com­pet­i­tive advan­tage in your indus­try, expand the scale of your oper­a­tions and lead to a num­ber of poten­tial ben­e­fits. These include…

Nov 30, 2011

Fed­er­al Court sets seri­ous con­se­quences for mul­ti­ple breach­es of Do Not Call Register

In brief — Com­pa­nies need to be wary of breach­ing the Do Not Call Register Sub­stan­tial fines have been issued for breach­es of the Do Not Call Reg­is­ter since it was estab­lished in 2007. Estab­lish­ment of the Do Not Call Register The Do Not Call Reg­is­ter was set up by the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment…

Nov 30, 2011

Fed­er­al Court finds Cen­tro direc­tors guilty of breach­es of the Cor­po­ra­tions Act

In brief – Breach of finan­cial report­ing oblig­a­tions and duties of care and diligence The Fed­er­al Court has found that eight direc­tors of Cen­tro Prop­er­ties Group and Cen­tro Retail Group breached their finan­cial report­ing oblig­a­tions and their duties of care and dili­gence under the Cor­po­ra­tions Act 2001 in approv­ing incor­rect finan­cial…

Nov 30, 2011

Advan­tages in final­is­ing the mar­ket rent before a ten­ant exer­cis­es an option for a new lease term

In brief – Both land­lord and ten­ant ben­e­fit by agree­ing on the mar­ket rent Ten­ants who have an option for a fur­ther term con­tained in their lease can ben­e­fit from ask­ing the land­lord to con­firm the mar­ket rent payable for the first year of the option term before exer­cis­ing the option. This…

Nov 30, 2011

Swaab in BRW Magazine

In Brief In this Busi­ness Review Week­ly arti­cle Glob­al Net­works, Man­ag­ing Part­ner Fred Swaab dis­cuss­es Swaab’s inter­na­tion­al alliance with the Mer­i­tas Organisation. …

Nov 30, 2011

Com­mence­ment of the Civ­il Dis­pute Res­o­lu­tion Act 2011 (Cth) — News Alert

The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment has announced that the Civ­il Dis­pute Res­o­lu­tion Act 2011 (Cth) will com­mence on 1 August 2011. The leg­is­la­tion impos­es require­ments for prospec­tive lit­i­gants to take geni­une steps to resolve a dis­pute before pro­ceed­ings are com­menced in the Fed­er­al Court or Fed­er­al Mag­is­trates Court. For detailed infor­ma­tion about these changes in…

Nov 30, 2011

What hap­pens when divorce splits a busi­ness? — Six pos­si­ble scenarios

In brief Many busi­ness­es are found­ed and run by a hus­band and wife team. What hap­pens to the busi­ness if they divorce? The ​‘clean break’ principle The Fam­i­ly Court’s posi­tion is that when­ev­er pos­si­ble, there should be a clean break between ex-spous­es. This means a prop­er­ty set­tle­ment, with the com­bined asset pool being bro­ken into two…

Nov 30, 2011

Casu­al employ­ee lodges unfair dis­missal claim after being sacked via a text message

In Brief Fair Work Aus­tralia (FWA) has sent a clear warn­ing to employ­ers think­ing of dis­miss­ing their employ­ees by text mes­sage, award­ing a casu­al employ­ee almost $10,000 com­pen­sa­tion after she was sum­mar­i­ly dis­missed via a text message. Sed­i­na Sokolovic v Mod­estie Fash­ion Aus­tralia Pty Ltd [2011] FWA 3063 Sed­i­na Sokolovic was employed by Mod­estie Fash­ion Aus­tralia…

Nov 29, 2011

Astro­turf­ing, social media and the law

In brief — If astro­turf­ing mis­leads con­sumers, it breach­es Aus­tralian Con­sumer Law “Astro­turf­ing” refers to an orches­trat­ed expres­sion of sup­port for a cause, whether a prod­uct, ser­vice or pol­i­cy, designed to give the impres­sion of a ​“grass­roots” move­ment. If this prac­tice mis­leads con­sumers, it breach­es both the Aus­tralian Con­sumer Law and the Code…