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Redun­dan­cy — Defend­ing Claims for Unfair Dismissal

Cir­cum­stances will some­times arise in a busi­ness where an employ­er needs to shed staff. The busi­ness may be sub­ject to a takeover or amal­ga­ma­tion, or its rev­enue may con­tract, for exam­ple where the mar­ket par­a­digm changes or per­haps as a result of los­ing key clients. It is in cir­cum­stances such as these, that an…

Post sep­a­ra­tion finan­cial contributions

The peri­od between sep­a­ra­tion and the final­i­sa­tion of a finan­cial mat­ter can be a mat­ter of days (if both par­ties agree) or years (in the Fam­i­ly Law Courts, it is cur­rent­ly esti­mat­ed that par­ties will have to wait 3 years before a defend­ed final hearing). Gen­er­al­ly speak­ing, the val­ues of all assets and lia­bil­i­ties of…

Make your mark in China

Pro­tect­ing your trade mark in China Aus­tralian busi­ness­es are increas­ing­ly recog­nis­ing the grow­ing impor­tance of Chi­na both as a mar­ket for their goods and ser­vices and as a source of man­u­fac­tured prod­ucts. The pro­tec­tion of trade marks in Chi­na should be of crit­i­cal impor­tance for such busi­ness­es. Recent pub­lic dis­cus­sion high­lights how well-known…

Halo, it’s Rumi and Sir Carter — Bey­on­ce’s babies set to run the world

What more could a famous celebri­ty with an impres­sive for­tune want – a trade mark reg­is­tra­tion for their new­born chil­dren! Wel­come to the world US Trade Mark Appli­ca­tion Num­bers 87506186 and 87506188 (that’s Rumi and Sir Carter to you and me). On 26 June, fans report­ed­ly uncov­ered the names of Bey­on­ce’s baby twins…

Spouse Main­te­nance — FAQs

In Brief- What is Spouse Maintenance? Spouse main­te­nance is mon­ey paid by one spouse or de fac­to part­ner to the oth­er spouse or de fac­to part­ner, usu­al­ly on a week­ly or month­ly basis, to meet his or her rea­son­able liv­ing expenses. How can I apply for maintenance? You are not auto­mat­i­cal­ly enti­tled to…

Divorce — FAQs

Am I eli­gi­ble to apply for divorce in Australia? If you want to apply for a divorce in Aus­tralia either you or your spouse need to have some con­nec­tion with Aus­tralia. Usu­al­ly this means that at least one of you: regards Aus­tralia as your home and intends to live here indef­i­nite­ly; or is an Aus­tralian…

Relo­cat­ing chil­dren over­seas after divorce

In Brief As more fam­i­lies become ​“inter­na­tion­al” many are faced with the dilem­ma that on divorce (or sep­a­ra­tion) one part­ner wants to go ​“back home” with the chil­dren and the oth­er wants them to stay here. This arti­cle out­lines what to con­sid­er if you’re think­ing about leav­ing Australia. Glob­al­i­sa­tion has led…

How to find a fam­i­ly lawyer and make the most of your first conference

In Brief Select­ing a fam­i­ly lawyer is not a sim­ple mat­ter; you don’t take the first you find in your inter­net search. Prepa­ra­tion before your first con­fer­ence with your lawyer can also ensure the con­fer­ence is pro­duc­tive and you get the answers you are seeking. You should take time to select a lawyer best…

Death of ​‘spe­cial contributions’

In Brief For a long time, there has been a debate in the fam­i­ly courts between those who believe that a court needs to recog­nise spe­cial and excep­tion­al con­tri­bu­tions and oth­ers who say there should be no recog­ni­tion of such a beast. Those who don’t sup­port it say that to recog­nise the exis­tence of…

Court rules that the min­i­mum lot size devel­op­ment stan­dard applies to stra­ta subdivision

Why is this deci­sion important? Many Appli­cants seek to stra­ta sub­di­vide mul­ti dwelling hous­ing or dual occu­pan­cies as a com­po­nent of a devel­op­ment appli­ca­tion, or after con­struc­tion of the res­i­den­tial accom­mo­da­tion. Some LEPs have spe­cif­ic pro­vi­sions about stra­ta sub­di­vi­sion in par­tic­u­lar zones, how­ev­er in this deci­sion the focus was clause 4.1 of the…

Are dis­missals gen­uine redun­dan­cies when employ­ees have reject­ed a pay cut?

Con­sid­er this sit­u­a­tion. You run Com­pa­ny A. Your busi­ness involves sup­ply­ing a ser­vice to Com­pa­ny B. You have been pro­vid­ing this ser­vice at a set price for a num­ber of years and engage a team of employ­ees to facil­i­tate the deliv­ery of the ser­vice. Due to rea­sons out­side of your con­trol Com­pa­ny B indi­cates that…

What hap­pens when the sole direc­tor and share­hold­er of a com­pa­ny dies?

A suc­cess­ful busi­ness can come to a crash­ing halt if the sole direc­tor and share­hold­er dies. If there is no direc­tor or share­hold­er, the com­pa­ny may become paral­ysed, face cash flow prob­lems if the deceased was the sole sig­na­to­ry of bank accounts, be unable to pay its employ­ees; or, at worst…

Fran­chisors beware: ACCC report high­lights actions tak­en against franchisors

The ACCC has recent­ly pub­lished its bian­nu­al ​“Small Busi­ness in Focus” report (​“the Report”) which describes the work it has under­tak­en con­cern­ing small busi­ness, fran­chis­ing and agri­cul­ture over the first six months of this year.[1] Part of the Report high­lights the enforce­ment actions it has tak­en against fran­chisors for alleged…

Employ­ment law myth No. 1: ​“It’s ille­gal to give a bad reference”

Many peo­ple believe that giv­ing a ​“bad” ref­er­ence is some­how against the law.In fact, there is no gen­er­al oblig­a­tion at law to give an employ­ee (or for­mer employ­ee) any sort of ref­er­ence – good or bad.  Where the law might inter­vene (for exam­ple in an action in defama­tion) would pos­si­bly be if…

Employ­ment law myth No. 2: ​“You need to give some­one three warn­ings before you can dis­miss them”

“Three strikes and you’re out” may have some appli­ca­tion to the laws of base­ball, but does not gen­er­al­ly apply in the field of employ­ment law. For employ­ees who have a right to claim unfair dis­missal*, the Fair Work Act 2009 pro­vides that one mat­ter the Fair Work Com­mis­sion must take into account…