Pub­li­ca­tions

Dec 17, 2019

Our most pop­u­lar arti­cles pub­lished dur­ing 2019

We are almost at the end of 2019, and with the end of a year comes the oppor­tu­ni­ty to reflect on our most pop­u­lar arti­cles pub­lished dur­ing the year:Deeds of Release and their effec­tive­ness – update 2019 | Richard Ott­ley | Employ­ment LawFair Work Com­mis­sion – When will the Full Bench enter­tain an…

Dec 10, 2019

Cyber or Online Abuse Dur­ing and After Sep­a­ra­tion and Help­ful Tips

Tech­nol­o­gy facil­i­tat­ed vio­lence and abuse is a seri­ous issue. When peo­ple sep­a­rate it is not uncom­mon for a dis­grun­tled spouse to turn to social media such as Face­book to vent their unhap­pi­ness. But when does the use of social media in this man­ner become some­thing more? In this pub­li­ca­tion, we dis­cuss Cyber Abuse…

Dec 9, 2019

5 times to review your estate planning

As the hol­i­day sea­son approach­es and trav­el plans are made, many peo­ple con­sid­er it the right time to update their estate plan­ning. In addi­tion to review­ing your estate plan­ning before you trav­el, we take a look at five sig­nif­i­cant life events that should prompt you to review and update your estate planning.Mar­riageMar­riage…

Nov 18, 2019

‘Tis the Sea­son to Avoid Fol­ly: Work­place Christ­mas Parties

Last week, Jose Feli­ciano’s fes­tive sta­ple ​‘Feliz Navi­dad’ was played on the radio. Before long, neigh­bours in cer­tain sub­ur­ban streets will be com­pet­ing to see who can put up the most impres­sive (or gar­ish) Christ­mas lights, re-runs of ​‘Love Actu­al­ly’ will be broad­cast on TV with increased fre­quen­cy and Christ­mas…

Oct 23, 2019

Alert | Design­ers and Build­ing Practitioners

“Some­times the wheel turns slow­ly, but it turns” [1]It is tak­ing some time, but slow­ly and sure­ly it appears we are see­ing the rec­om­men­da­tions put for­ward in the Sher­gold Weir Report [2] being actioned.With the Sher­gold Weir Report released in Feb­ru­ary 2018 and the NSW Gov­ern­men­t’s Response to the Sher­gold Weir…

Oct 17, 2019

Fair Work Com­mis­sion – When will the Full Bench enter­tain an appeal?

A ques­tion often asked by employ­ers fac­ing an unfair dis­missal claim is, what hap­pens if the mat­ter can­not be set­tled? Whilst the vast major­i­ty of unfair dis­missal cas­es are resolved at con­cil­i­a­tion, some pro­ceed to a hear­ing. On rare occa­sions they find their way from a hear­ing before a sin­gle Com­mis­sion­er to the…

Oct 9, 2019

Dis­agree with a val­u­a­tion by joint­ly instruct­ed sin­gle expert? What not to do!

The Fam­i­ly Law Act 1975 (Cth) sets out the gen­er­al prin­ci­ples the Court will con­sid­er when deter­min­ing finan­cial dis­putes after sep­a­ra­tion. The gen­er­al prin­ci­ples are the same regard­less of whether the par­ties were mar­ried or in a defac­to relationship.The first ques­tion the Court needs to deter­mine in an appli­ca­tion for prop­er­ty…

Sep 23, 2019

Fair Work Com­mis­sion crit­i­cis­es time-wast­ing unfair dis­missal applications

In a recent deci­sion, Diane Por­te­ous v G. Kakafikas and A.G. Bek part­ner­ship t/​a Yarra Glen Phar­ma­cy [2019] FWC 6264, Deputy Pres­i­dent Col­man of the Fair Work Com­mis­sion (Com­mis­sion) has crit­i­cised appli­cants who com­mence unfair dis­missal pro­ceed­ings and then don’t take the nec­es­sary steps to pros­e­cute their claim. The Case The Appli­cant worked…

Sep 17, 2019

Gen­uine redun­dan­cy or unfair dis­missal? The dif­fer­ence could be in the consultation

When it comes to ter­mi­nat­ing employ­ees due to changes in oper­a­tional require­ments, com­pli­ance is key, includ­ing com­pli­ance with rel­e­vant pro­vi­sions in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act) and any applic­a­ble mod­ern award or enter­prise agreement.  As a grow­ing body of case law demon­strates, fail­ure to gen­uine­ly engage with the pro­ce­dures…

Sep 10, 2019

It’s almost time: Amend­ments to the Build­ing and Con­struc­tion Indus­try Secu­ri­ty of Pay­ment Act 1999 (NSW) to com­mence on 21 Octo­ber 2019

The Build­ing and Con­struc­tion Indus­try Secu­ri­ty of Pay­ment Act 1999 (NSW) (the Act) is about to under­go some changes. Those changes will apply to con­struc­tion con­tracts in New South Wales entered from 21 Octo­ber 2019. What are the changes?Ref­er­ence dates are goneThere are no more ref­er­ence dates. The con­cept of a ​‘ref­er­ence date’ will…