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NSW stra­ta reform: a dif­fer­ent kind of deposition

In brief ‘Stra­ta hous­ing’ is a term that orig­i­nat­ed from the field of geol­o­gy, where dif­fer­ent ​‘stra­ta’ were the lay­ers of sed­i­men­ta­ry rock or soil that had been deposed over thou­sands of years. A more impor­tant type of depo­si­tion, how­ev­er, may be the one you face if you infringe upon the ​‘Stra­ta…

Arm­ing David with a shield: unfair con­tract protections

In brief Small busi­ness­es are con­sumers in their own right. So why should­n’t they be pro­tect­ed from unfair con­tracts in the same way that con­sumers are? Now, new leg­is­la­tion ensures that David won’t face Goliath with­out a shield. Our mod­ern con­sumer pro­tec­tion laws ensure that con­sumers are pro­tect­ed from unfair con­tract…

Where there’s a will there’s a rel­a­tive! Claims against deceased estates

In brief This year marks the 100th anniver­sary of the com­mence­ment of fam­i­ly pro­vi­sion leg­is­la­tion in New South Wales. Despite this, we are con­tin­u­ous­ly sur­prised by the num­ber of peo­ple who come to see us about their estate plan­ning needs and who are not aware that their will may be…

Gear­ing and Pro­tect­ing Intel­lec­tu­al Prop­er­ty for the World Market

In brief Trade has been a big focus for the Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment in recent months. New­ly mint­ed bi-lat­er­al and mul­ti-lat­er­al inter­na­tion­al trade agree­ments are in place, which are sure to open up greater export and invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties for Aus­tralian com­pa­nies. How­ev­er, if you want to par­tic­i­pate, can you be sure your…

What in the WADA is going on with the ​“Essendon 34”?

The Essendon Foot­ball Club is still in the news, like it or not. In Syd­ney this past week, the Court of Arbi­tra­tion for Sport (CAS) com­menced its hear­ing of the appeal lodged by the World Anti-Dopo­ing Agency (WADA) against the 34 cur­rent and for­mer play­ers of the Essendon Foot­ball Club…

When is a con­trac­tor not a con­trac­tor? Is an ABN enough?

In brief Employ­ment lawyers are con­stant­ly being told by their clients: ​“It’s okay, he/​she has an ABN”. Employ­ers often pre­sume, as the work­er has the ​“mag­i­cal” ATO-relat­ed num­ber, the ABN, that some­how all employ­ment oblig­a­tions are absolved. Recent cas­es in rela­tion to sham con­tract­ing and, gen­er­al­ly, claims by employ­ees have demon­strat­ed…

Can you still set off an employ­ee’s salary against Award enti­tle­ments? It’s complicated! 

In brief In the area of set offs in employ­ment law, a word of warn­ing to cut through some of the com­plex­i­ty. You won’t nec­es­sar­i­ly achieve the objec­tive of being able to sat­is­fy award oblig­a­tions, unless you go about it in the cor­rect fashion. We get tech­ni­cal about the mech­a­nism by which…

How about a refresh on a Reverse Takeover?

In Brief Who knows what oppor­tu­ni­ties are ahead of us for the 2016 year, but being pre­pared is a very good place to start! How about a Reverse Takeover? What is a reverse takeover? Put sim­ply, a reverse takeover (RTO) is the acqui­si­tion of a pub­lic com­pa­ny by share­hold­ers in a (usu­al­ly small­er) pri­vate company. An RTO…

Break­ing News: the sun is set­ting on unfair use of sun­set claus­es in off-the-plan sales!

In brief The recent amend­ment to the Con­veyanc­ing Act by the NSW Gov­ern­ment has shift­ed the bal­ance in rela­tion to stra­ta devel­op­ments. For a long time, the per­cep­tion has been that devel­op­ers have held all the pow­er in off-the-plan con­tracts. Daniel Ken­twell shares his insights. Terms: “off the plan con­tract” (for the…

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…

New prop­er­ty laws for a New Year! Real estate agents who under­quote are the target

IN BRIEF If you’re a buy­er in the mar­ket for prop­er­ty, changes to the law could mean a hap­pi­er new year ahead in 2016. In NSW, on 1 Jan­u­ary 2016, the pro­vi­sions of the Prop­er­ty, Stock and Busi­ness Agents Amend­ment (Under­quot­ing Pro­hi­bi­tion) Act 2015, No 31 came into effect. The amend­ment intends to pre­vent sell­ing…

Parental gifts who gets them if your mar­riage breaks down?

IN BRIEF Your par­ents give you and your spouse some mon­ey – say, to buy a house. Then you split up. To what extent will your spouse get the ben­e­fit of the gift? When a rela­tion­ship breaks up, the mat­ri­mo­ni­al prop­er­ty may need to be divid­ed between the par­ties. The court will go…

Pro­tect­ing In-house Coun­sel’s advice

In brief Swaab believe the recent case of Hol­man v War­ringah Coun­cil [2015] brings some clar­i­ty to the law sur­round­ing legal pro­fes­sion­al priv­i­lege, espe­cial­ly when it comes to infor­ma­tion pre­pared by in-house counsel. The ques­tion is – in what cir­cum­stances can legal pro­fes­sion­al priv­i­lege be claimed over infor­ma­tion pre­pared by in-house counsel? What…

After the Mar­di Gras glit­ter and glow why not pause for thought on the sta­tus of your relationship

In Brief “…it’s time to stand up and be count­ed, to turn your pas­sion into pur­pose. Start some­thing! Build momen­tum.” Momen­tum is the theme for the 2016 Syd­ney Gay and Les­bian Mar­di Gras. As the 2016 Mar­di Gras fes­ti­val draws to a close with the inter­na­tion­al­ly renowned Syd­ney Gay and Les­bian Mar­di…

Work­place lia­bil­i­ty in unex­pect­ed places

In brief In this arti­cle we look at two recent cas­es where employ­ers face penal­ties in cir­cum­stances which high­light the need for employ­ers and man­agers to be vig­i­lant in the workplace. In the first case, a com­pa­ny was held liable for the actions of one of its employ­ees who racial­ly abused a co-work­er…