News and resources

It’s nine o’clock at night and you are relaxing at home watching a movie before heading to bed. Suddenly the phone rings. It’s the boss calling to discuss a meeting to be held tomorrow at work. You sigh – wishing you could disconnect from your work at this late hour – but you take the […]

An art investor engaged an art expert to act as her agent. The agent’s role was to locate valuable but underpriced works of art and bid on the investor’s behalf at various auctions for the sale of artwork, including paintings and sculptures.

Around that time the seller engaged an auction house to advertise and subsequently sell a painting by a famous Australian artist at a public auction. In doing so the seller and the auction house entered into a contract.

By way of that contract, the seller of the painting made a number of promises to the auctioneer, including that the painting was painted by a specific famous artist, specifying the year it was painted, that the auction house was allowed to advertise the painting as having been painted by that artist and that no third party had expressed concerns about the authenticity of the painting.

Relying on the contract, the auctioneer published a catalogue, inspected by the buyer of the painting, which stated there was “no doubt” that the painting was authentic. None of the parties had any reason to suspect the painting was a forgery at the time of its sale.

The sale went ahead and the buyer purchased the artwork for the princely sum of $85,000.

A case heard in the Supreme Court of NSW in 2017 concerned an employment restraint in a worker’s employment contract.

The company in question manufactured and sold school uniforms in NSW. The employee had worked in that industry for many years before she joined the company in July 2015.

Her employment contract with the company included a “restraint of trade” clause, preventing her, in the event she left her employment at the company, from starting up her own business in competition with the company for a period of either three or six months.

The employment contract also contained a clause requiring her to refrain from misusing or disclosing confidential information of the company, either before or after termination of her employment.

What is misfeasance in public office? The tort of misfeasance – it sounds like an evil spell in Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, and in a way it’s similar. Misfeasance is a legal term relating to the abuse of power by a person holding public office. Misfeasance and the robodebt scandal The term […]

Unfair contract terms can include non-disparagement clause Soon there will be 50 million reasons to be wary of the non-disparagement clause in contracts, as the federal government has increased penalties under Australian consumer law for breaching unfair contract terms. This can involve including a controversial non-disparagement clause in a contract, aimed at stopping people saying […]

ASIC and the courts have shown they are serious about clamping down on companies that breach continuous disclosure laws. This includes companies which do not notify their shareholders of a cyber attack. Record fine for not following market disclosure laws The corporate regulator Australian Securities & Investments Commission recently levied a record $15 million fine […]

In a case that social media influencers should not ignore, US authorities recently fined American celebrity Kim Kardashian $2 million for promoting cryptocurrency on her social media without declaring she was paid $385,000 to do so. Kim K could probably pay that fine with the loose change at the bottom of her Gucci handbag, but […]

A cartel in business operates by independent corporations or market participants who are otherwise rivals colluding with one another to increase their profits, restrict competition and dominate the market. Roofing companies in Sydney set up cartel Wesley College in Sydney University needed to fix an old slate roof. The college approached a couple of roofing […]

A mother, daughter and son-in-law lived together in a house they rented in town.

However, they all agreed that in order for the daughter and son-in-law to provide accommodation and care properly for the mother, they would need a larger house.

To achieve this objective, they signed a deed of family arrangement.

A registered voter failed to attend a polling booth to vote in the 2016 federal election. He was subsequently issued with a penalty notice by the Australian Electoral Commission, inviting him to pay a fine or give reasons why he failed to vote.

Under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, voting is compulsory in Australia unless an elector has a “valid and sufficient reason” for failing to do so.

If you find yourself in a position where you’re out of pocket because of someone else and the amount you’re owed is relatively small, it can be difficult to know what to do next. Whether it’s a debt someone hasn’t repaid (like a customer who won’t pay your bill), money you’ve had to outlay to […]

A police officer worked for NSW Police and was involved in a number of traumatic events before ultimately quitting the police force.

After leaving the force, the officer was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Owing to her illness, the officer did not return to any kind of employment.