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Com­mence­ment of the Civ­il Dis­pute Res­o­lu­tion Act 2011 (Cth) — News Alert

The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment has announced that the Civ­il Dis­pute Res­o­lu­tion Act 2011 (Cth) will com­mence on 1 August 2011. The leg­is­la­tion impos­es require­ments for prospec­tive lit­i­gants to take geni­une steps to resolve a dis­pute before pro­ceed­ings are com­menced in the Fed­er­al Court or Fed­er­al Mag­is­trates Court. For detailed infor­ma­tion about these changes in…

What hap­pens when divorce splits a busi­ness? — Six pos­si­ble scenarios

In brief Many busi­ness­es are found­ed and run by a hus­band and wife team. What hap­pens to the busi­ness if they divorce? The ​‘clean break’ principle The Fam­i­ly Court’s posi­tion is that when­ev­er pos­si­ble, there should be a clean break between ex-spous­es. This means a prop­er­ty set­tle­ment, with the com­bined asset pool being bro­ken into two…

Casu­al employ­ee lodges unfair dis­missal claim after being sacked via a text message

In Brief Fair Work Aus­tralia (FWA) has sent a clear warn­ing to employ­ers think­ing of dis­miss­ing their employ­ees by text mes­sage, award­ing a casu­al employ­ee almost $10,000 com­pen­sa­tion after she was sum­mar­i­ly dis­missed via a text message. Sed­i­na Sokolovic v Mod­estie Fash­ion Aus­tralia Pty Ltd [2011] FWA 3063 Sed­i­na Sokolovic was employed by Mod­estie Fash­ion Aus­tralia…

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…

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…

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. …

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Man­ag­ing ill or injured employ­ees A del­i­cate bal­anc­ing act

One of the most chal­leng­ing issues faced by clients of employ­ment rela­tions advis­ers is man­ag­ing an employ­ee who is either ill or injured. The dif­fi­cul­ty aris­es from the need to bal­ance the risk of expo­sure to claims of dis­crim­i­na­tion, unfair dis­missal and the new­ly her­ald­ed ​“gen­er­al pro­tec­tions” against the poten­tial­ly…

Aus­tralian local coun­cils win appeal against Lehman Broth­ers in High Court

In Brief In this arti­cle Aus­tralian Local Coun­cils win appeal against Lehman Broth­ers in High Court, Part­ner Tean Kerr dis­cuss­es Lehman Broth­ers Hold­ings Inc (USA) fil­ing of a Chap­ter 11 bank­rupt­cy peti­tion in the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca on 14 Sept 2008. Twelve days lat­er, on 26 Sept 2008, admin­is­tra­tors were appoint­ed…

Pub­lic Inter­est Law Clear­ing House (PILCH)

Our involve­ment with PILCH goes back sev­en years. This organ­i­sa­tion refers indi­vid­u­als and organ­i­sa­tions to mem­ber law firms like Swaab, where lawyers vol­un­teer to pro­vide pro bono legal assis­tance in mat­ters which involve mar­gin­alised peo­ple or which are clear­ly in the pub­lic interest.  The lawyers in our firm have worked on…

Online behav­iour­al adver­tis­ing code released How do you want your cook­ies crumbled?

In brief: Indus­try coali­tion releas­es vol­un­tary Guide­line — Web users to have abil­i­ty to opt out of OBA In late March 2011, an Aus­tralian adver­tis­ing indus­try coali­tion released its Aus­tralian Best Prac­tice Guide­line for Online Behav­iour­al Adver­tis­ing (OBA, also known as Inter­est Based Advertising). What is Online Behav­iour­al Advertising? Often in…