Search

Leav­ing a lega­cy: Doing char­i­ty the right way

In brief The idea of leav­ing a lega­cy to char­i­ty in your will that helps those who are less for­tu­nate is cer­tain­ly an attrac­tive one. Get­ting your char­i­ta­ble gifts just right in your will can make things eas­i­er for every­one con­cerned after you have passed away. This arti­cle explores the gift (and…

Sex­u­al­ly Trans­mit­ted Debt: Are you liable for your ex’s debts upon separation?

In Brief Sep­a­rat­ing par­ties are often anx­ious to know whether they will become liable for their ex-part­ner’s debts upon sep­a­ra­tion. This arti­cle dis­cuss­es sex­u­al­ly trans­mit­ted debt and what it means in the con­text of fam­i­ly law proceedings. What is ​“sex­u­al­ly trans­mit­ted debt”? “Sex­u­al­ly trans­mit­ted debt” is when you become liable for…

The Vir­gin Look Book: Can you con­trol the appear­ance of your employees?

In Brief One issue com­mon­ly faced by employ­ers is get­ting employ­ees to com­ply with dress and groom­ing stan­dards, and when an employ­ee choos­es not to or can­not com­ply, deter­min­ing what their options are. This was the sce­nario faced by Vir­gin Air­lines with one of its cab­in staff, a Mr David Tales­ki, whose employ­ment…

A Prac­ti­cal Guide to Warn­ings in the Workplace

What is a work­place warning? A warn­ing is a com­mu­ni­ca­tion be it ver­bal (more infor­mal) or writ­ten (more for­mal) to an employ­ee about their per­for­mance or con­duct at work. They are a mech­a­nism for com­mu­ni­cat­ing an iden­ti­fied area where an employ­ee needs improve­ment, or where con­duct does not meet the req­ui­site stan­dard. The aim is…

The Lib­er­als are in impli­ca­tions for employ­ers and employees

In Brief The Lib­er­als are in and Tony Abbot has promised to ​“restore the bal­ance back to the sen­si­ble cen­tre” in indus­tri­al rela­tions by not replac­ing, but improv­ing the cur­rent Fair Work Act. What does this actu­al­ly mean for employ­ees and employ­ers? From the Lib­er­al Par­ty’s pro­posed poli­cies we feel that…

Lost in trans­la­tion — Why you need a lawyer to write a Will

In Brief Ever had dif­fi­cul­ty com­mu­ni­cat­ing when trav­el­ling in a for­eign coun­try? Just like writ­ing a will, the dif­fi­cul­ty is not know­ing what you want to say, the dif­fi­cul­ty is sim­ply how to say it. The last thing you want is for your last words to be lost in trans­la­tion. Angela Har­vey, part­ner…

Your Sep­a­ra­tion Checklist

In BriefThink­ing of sep­a­rat­ing from your part­ner or are you already sep­a­rat­ed? To pro­tect you and your fam­i­ly here are some things to consider.When cou­ples sep­a­rate or one par­ty decides to end the rela­tion­ship there are lots of things that need to be sort­ed out. Sep­a­ra­tion takes its toll on peo­ple…

Employ­ers beware of act­ing against employ­ees with fam­i­ly responsibilities

In Brief Most busi­ness own­ers are very sym­pa­thet­ic to their staff mem­bers’ oblig­a­tions to their fam­i­lies and gen­er­al­ly except that emer­gen­cies arise which may require an employ­ee to leave the work­place. How­ev­er, it can be very frus­trat­ing when this aris­es at a busy time or fre­quent­ly over a short peri­od. In a recent case…

Estate plan­ning and super­an­nu­a­tion — How to have the last laugh

In brief Super­an­nu­a­tion is a fun­ny thing. It is yours, but you can’t have it yet. It gets paid out when you die, but the mon­ey may not go to whom you would like. You are basi­cal­ly sav­ing all your life for some­thing you might nev­er receive and you prob­a­bly don’t even…

Dis­pens­ing with awards — Can you pay employ­ees a lump sum amount that meets your award obligations?

The chal­lenge in busi­ness to keep up with changes and awards can be par­tic­u­lar­ly problematic. Many busi­ness own­ers don’t have a full under­stand­ing of what awards apply to their staff and even less of an idea of what oblig­a­tions those awards con­tain. This occurs because in real­i­ty busi­ness own­ers are busy…

The oper­a­tion of priv­i­lege to advice giv­en to a stra­ta own­ers corporation

Ques­tion: can an own­ers cor­po­ra­tion claim legal pro­fes­sion­al priv­i­lege over doc­u­ments in con­nec­tion with legal advice on its books and records as against a lot owner? The answer is yes, to an extent, but to what extent you may ask? The short answer is that it depends on the nature of the…

Pow­er of Attor­ney — Changes are here!

In Brief A pow­er of attor­ney is like insur­ance. If you have not planned for the worst when the unex­pect­ed occurs you might find that you, your legal and finan­cial affairs and your fam­i­ly and friends all suf­fer to a much greater degree than nec­es­sary. Angela Har­vey, part­ner, and Euge Pow­er, solic­i­tor, pro­vide…

Con­sul­ta­tion about changes to reg­u­lar ros­ters and ordi­nary hours of work

In Brief As of 1 Jan­u­ary 2014, chang­ing the staff ros­ter has become a more com­plex process with the intro­duc­tion of amend­ments to the Fair Work Act 2009. A New Provision Ros­ter flex­i­bil­i­ty can be key in ensur­ing busi­ness effi­cien­cy in the face of chang­ing oper­a­tional require­ments, sea­son­al fluc­tu­a­tions and the occa­sion­al unfore­seen cir­cum­stances…

Con­tro­ver­sial com­care case draws a line for work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion claims

In Brief In a deci­sion which has divid­ed legal opin­ion, the High Court has made a rul­ing as to what is meant by the expres­sion ​“in the course of employ­ment”. The High Court con­sid­ered this expres­sion in the case of Com­care v PVYW [2013] HCA 41 in the con­text of a work­ers’ com­pen­sa­tion claim brought by…

Ten­ants beware — High Court con­firms liq­uida­tors of land­lord com­pa­nies can dis­claim leases

In Brief The High Court has recent­ly con­firmed that the liq­uida­tors of a land­lord com­pa­ny are able to dis­claim a lease, with the effect of ter­mi­nat­ing the lease­hold inter­est of the tenant. The High Court deci­sion of Will­mott Grow­ers Group Inc v Will­mott Forests Ltd (Receivers and Man­agers Appoint­ed) (In Liq­ui­da­tion) con­cerned an appeal to…