Pub­li­ca­tions

Dec 6, 2011

Has the long-antic­i­pat­ed reg­u­la­tion of lit­i­ga­tion fund­ing final­ly arrived?

Inter­na­tion­al Lit­i­ga­tion Part­ners Pte Ltd v Chameleon Min­ing NL (2011) 276 ALR 138; [2011] NSW­CA 50; BC201101379. Introduction The recent deci­sion of the NSW Court of Appeal in Inter­na­tion­al Lit­i­ga­tion Part­ners Pte Ltd v Chameleon Min­ing NL (See Foot­note 1) has con­firmed that lit­i­ga­tion fun­ders are required to hold an Aus­tralian finan­cial…

Dec 6, 2011

What rights do par­ents have to stop their ex’s new part­ner tak­ing part in rais­ing their children

Joint parental responsibility With­out any court orders and usu­al­ly with court orders (unless it is deter­mined by the court that it is not in the best inter­ests of the chil­dren), both par­ents have joint parental respon­si­bil­i­ty. This means that it is both par­ents’ respon­si­bil­i­ty, not that of a new part­ner of…

Dec 6, 2011

Swaab employ­ment lawyer writes on unfair dis­missal for Char­tered Sec­re­taries magazine

In Brief In this arti­cle, Termi­nat­ing an employ­ee — reduc­ing the risks of unfair dis­missal claims, employ­ment lawyer Bren­dan Tay­lor exam­ines recent unfair dis­missal cas­es and high­lights the need for employ­ers to keep detailed records and abide by prin­ci­ples of pro­ce­dur­al fairness. …

Dec 6, 2011

Sen­ate Com­mit­tee report: The ade­qua­cy of pro­tec­tions for the pri­va­cy of Aus­tralians online

In brief — Pri­va­cy rec­om­men­da­tions could have a pro­found impact on all businesses A Sen­ate Com­mit­tee report has made nine rec­om­men­da­tions for changes to Aus­trali­a’s pri­va­cy régime. If imple­ment­ed, three of these will lead to sig­nif­i­cant changes to Aus­trali­a’s pri­va­cy laws, affect­ing all busi­ness­es. These are the change to the small busi­ness…

Dec 6, 2011

Five ways to make them pay their debts

When peo­ple tell me that they are owed mon­ey and ask me what they can do to recov­er that debt, I can only tell them half the sto­ry. The oth­er half of the sto­ry only they can tell me. My half of the story The legal sys­tem pro­vides a num­ber of mea­sures to enable…

Dec 6, 2011

Employ­er defends adverse action claim by employ­ee dis­missed dur­ing pro­ba­tion­ary period

In brief – Dis­missal dur­ing pro­ba­tion not nec­es­sar­i­ly an adverse action Fol­low­ing on from our ear­li­er arti­cle on adverse action, a recent case has high­light­ed how an employ­er can be suc­cess­ful in defend­ing a claim lodged by an employ­ee who was dis­missed dur­ing a pro­ba­tion­ary period. Hod­kin­son v The Com­mon­wealth [2011] FMCA 171 San­dra Hod­kin­son was engaged…

Dec 6, 2011

Rights of grand­par­ents and oth­er extend­ed fam­i­ly mem­bers to see the chil­dren after fam­i­lies separate

In Brief — Impor­tance of a pre-exist­ing rela­tion­ship and the age of the child  The deci­sion of a court about grand­par­ents and extend­ed fam­i­ly mem­bers spend­ing reg­u­lar time with the chil­dren after sep­a­ra­tion or divorce is like­ly to be influ­enced by the age of the chil­dren and by whether or not a rela­tion­ship already…

Dec 6, 2011

Gen­uine steps before going to court

In brief — Increased impor­tance of attempts to resolve a dispute On 24 March 2011 the Aus­tralian Par­lia­ment passed the Civ­il Dis­pute Res­o­lu­tion Bill 2011, which will require prospec­tive lit­i­gants to take gen­uine steps to resolve a dis­pute before pro­ceed­ings are com­menced in the Fed­er­al Court or Fed­er­al Mag­is­trates Court. Once the…

Nov 30, 2011

ASIC involve­ment marks new twist in Chameleon Min­ing case

In brief — Finan­cial ser­vices licence exemp­tions do not have ret­ro­spec­tive effect ASIC has become involved in the case of Inter­na­tion­al Lit­i­ga­tion Part­ners Pty Ltd v Chameleon Min­ing NL, sub­mit­ting to the court that exemp­tions from the need to hold a finan­cial ser­vices licence do not have ret­ro­spec­tive effect. Lit­i­ga­tion fund­ing agree­ment is a finan­cial product…

Nov 30, 2011

Grow­ing your busi­ness through acquisition

In brief – Acqui­si­tion can accel­er­ate the growth of your business One way to accel­er­ate the growth of your busi­ness dra­mat­i­cal­ly is to buy anoth­er busi­ness. This can help you gain a com­pet­i­tive advan­tage in your indus­try, expand the scale of your oper­a­tions and lead to a num­ber of poten­tial ben­e­fits. These include…