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Commercial Law

For Optus, legal professional privilege is a breach too far

Unless you have been living under a rock with no mobile reception, you will probably be aware that in September 2022, Optus suffered a massive data breach.  As the equitable maxim that “there can be no wrong without a remedy” has been updated for modern Australian conditions to “there can be no data breach without

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May 28
2024
Commercial Law Litigation and dispute resolution

Contractual boilerplate becomes unexpectedly . . . riveting

Warren Buffett famously said that “only when the tide goes out, do you discover who has been swimming naked”, which neatly captures the idea that it is only when there is a contractual problem, do you discover whether your contractual drafting has given you the protection that you need.  In a series of cases against

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September 1
2022
Commercial Law Litigation and dispute resolution

Bull market dispute resolved by disclaimer in cattle log

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

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December 23
2019
Commercial Law Competition and consumer law Litigation and dispute resolution

The un-palletable consequences of taking guarantees on trust

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

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November 24
2019
Commercial Law Litigation and dispute resolution

When will “leave it to the experts” be a terrible idea?

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

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September 7
2019
Commercial Law Litigation and dispute resolution

Good faith in commercial contracts (or, “The scrap about scraps”)

Most people know that FOMO is the Fear Of Missing Out, but what about the fear of being locked in (for example, to an unprofitable commercial contract?) We might have to start calling that “foam-o”, as a result of a recent case on the subject, which involved a dispute about a contract for the sale of scrap

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March 9
2019
Commercial Law Litigation and dispute resolution

“See you in court!” (but which one to choose?)

Involvement in complex litigation is enough to get anyone into a right state – and all the more so when the Australian State in which the litigation is taking place is not a State in which you have a main place of business (or in which you have access to trusted lawyers).  A plaintiff gets to choose where litigation will

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December 9
2018
Commercial Law Litigation and dispute resolution

The very surprising winner in Australia’s first $1m+ sexual harassment verdict

This story is about a dentist (so we can’t show you his face on television, if anyone is thinking of buying the television rights to this article).  The dentist was alleged to have engaged in sexual harassment, and dismissed from the practice in which he was working. Subsequently, he he was sued, and ordered by the

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October 13
2018
Commercial Law Employment Law

Three things in this life are certain – death, taxes and fights over legal privilege

“ATO targets legal privilege”, cries the front page of today’s Australian Financial Review,  neatly bringing together the second and the third of life’s certainties (the first certainty being one with which we try not to concern ourselves unduly here at Worth Knowing). The article quotes ATO Commissioner Chris Jordan as having said in March that “[the

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October 9
2018
Commercial Law Litigation and dispute resolution

Getting the right dispute resolution clause is a matter of binding your own business

Monday’s experts (according to the Weddings Parties Anything song of the same name) “always know what’s cooking, how the game was lost, and how it could have been won”.  What this song doesn’t tell us, however (in an unfortunate lyrical oversight) is whether Monday’s experts would be of much assistance in resolving disputes about commercial

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August 11
2018
Commercial Law Litigation and dispute resolution
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