News and resources

People are often concerned that their beloved pet – be it a dog, cat, lizard, budgie, parrot, rat, horse or fish – will outlive them, and they want to make sure that companion animal is cared for when they are gone. Your pet is not recognised as a family member in Australia With 63 per […]

A case heard in the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Western Australia concerned a dispute between a landlord and a tenant of commercial premises in Perth over whether their email exchange constituted a binding contract.

The tenant had occupied the premises for six years and its lease was due to expire on 30 June 2009. In May 2009, the parties began negotiations for a new lease.

One year of separation required before applying for divorce “I want to get a divorce as quickly as possible. What can I do to speed things up?” Many people want to get divorced as soon as they can, so they can move on with their life. But there are legal matters you should consider before […]

The electric scooter is growing in popularity in Europe as a means of urban transport, and there has been pressure in Australia to allow them to be used on cycleways and selected public roads. In many European cities, a person can rent an e-scooter on the spot, ride it wherever they want to go, and […]

In 1998, an elderly married couple purchased a 255-acre rural property in northern NSW. By 2004, they were receiving the aged pension and came to believe that owning the property might disqualify them from the pension.

Their belief stemmed from a conversation with their daughter, who allegedly said words to the effect: “If you own over five acres of property, you may no longer be entitled to receive the pension.”

According to the latest figures from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, in 2022 Australians lost more than $3 billion to scammers, including losses due to payment redirection scams – and that is only the losses that were reported to the ACCC. How common are payment redirection scams? As house prices soar, scammers are employing […]

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 […]

Recently there has been a lot of publicity about new Commonwealth laws, taking effect toward the end of 2023, aimed at preventing and addressing sexual harassment in Australian workplaces. Recurring themes in this publicity are the stimulus for these laws, the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National Inquiry Report (2020); and the phrase […]

In November 2023 changes to the law on unfair contract terms came into force, applying to a significantly expanded category of small business. Small business definition changes to include larger businesses The legal definition of a “small” business rose from one with fewer than 20 employees, or annual turnover up to $3 million, to a […]

Who owns all of the images on social media? All those holiday snaps, happy family memories and eyewitness videos of crazy happenings and crimes that are uploaded daily… Do we still own the images we post on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn and Snapchat? Terms of service and images on social […]

A case heard in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal in 2016 concerned a dangerous driver.

On an evening in 2015, a 19-year-old man was driving the streets of a small country town in a single cab utility motor vehicle, with two passengers in the cabin not wearing seatbelts and a third passenger seated on a toolbox in the back tray.

The driver did not own the vehicle, but had driven it several times and was familiar with it and with the road he was driving along. The driver was the designated driver and had not been drinking that evening.

Employers found liable for industrial manslaughter could face up to 20 years in jail under tough new negligence laws to come into operation in NSW in 2024. New industrial manslaughter laws following worksite deaths NSW Industrial Relations Minister Sophie Cotsis has said she will bring in new industrial manslaughter laws which will significantly increase penalties […]

Doli incapax is Latin for “incapable of evil” and stems from the legal notion that humans can be too young to understand what they are doing is wrong when they commit a crime. Children under ten cannot be found guilty of an offence In Australia children ten years old and younger cannot be found guilty […]

In a significant legal blow to environmentalists, in 2023 the Federal Court ruled that the federal environment minister does not have to consider climate change when approving coal mines. Environmental group claims minister did not consider climate change The Environment Council of Central Queensland (ECoCeQ) mounted a legal challenge to minister Tanya Plibersek’s assessment of […]

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.

Following a tax assessment, the corporate trustee of a family trust was found to owe $7 million to the Australian Taxation Office.

The company held nine properties for the trust. After receiving the tax bill, the company implemented a complicated restructure to transfer ownership of those properties.

A recent Supreme Court judgment may open the way for businesses to claim damages from the government if they lose income due to business disruption as a result of major road works. Construction of light rail causes significant business disruption Two Sydney small business owners took Transport for NSW to court after they lost income […]

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.