The Australian Solicitors Conduct Rules (ASCR) forbid ex parte communications with the Court without the consent of opposing parties (which includes communications by email).  Although there have been a string of cases in which judges have provided guidance to solicitors about how to observe this rule, anecdotal evidence suggests that this may be the provision 

When an innocent party is faced with an apparent breach of contract, there are always two questions to ask.  The first question is, “how strong is my argument that what has happened is, in, fact, a breach of contract?”  The second question, which is often more important, is “can I obtain a remedy which will

Angus Macinnis just took a DNA test, turns out he’s 100% that solicitor who keeps getting invited to speak at CPD seminars over the February/March CPD “high season”.  (He’s probably also 100% overusing that “just took a DNA test” meme, but it will do until something better comes along).  Here are Angus’ tour dates for

It is very common to read about plaintiffs who have commenced misleading and deceptive conduct actions complaining that they have been sold a complete load of bull.  It is less common for those cases to involve actual bulls. However, the New South Wales Court of Appeal last week considered a misleading and deceptive conduct case

On the very first page of the leading Australian textbook on the law  of trusts, you will find the statement that, “a trust is not a juristic person with the legal personality distinct from that of the trustee and beneficiary”.  This is a lawyerly way of saying “a trust is a relationship – it is

You might be surprised to learn that an organisation with the word “Roads” in its name would find itself in dispute with the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) (which is now a branch of the CFMMEU).  However, it’s a long road which has no turning, and as the National Roads and Motorists Association Ltd (NRMA)

Whilst the key to whistling may have been summed up by Lauren Bacall to Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not, it is, unfortunately, not nearly so easy to summarise Australia’s new whistleblower laws which took effect on 1 July 2019. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Whistleblower Protections) Act 2019 (Cth) provides a single,

For many years, Angus has coached intervaristy mooting teams in competitions which involve international disopute resolution (and in particular, international commercial arbitration).  Last year, he coached students from the Thomas More Law School at the Australian Catholic University (who were good enough, despite Angus’ coaching, to finish 27th out of 372 universities competing in Vienna).

There are many different ways to resolve contractual disputes.  As a consequence, when a contractual dispute arises, the question of which dispute resolution mechanism to use may become a further source of disputation.  For that reason, it is often a good idea to put some thought into dispute resolution clauses when the contract is being

[This is an extended version of an article published in the August 2019 edition of the Law Society Journal.  You can read the published version of the article in the electronic edition of the Journal by clicking here]. “Never read the comments” is often said to be one of the cardinal rules of the Internet