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Worth Knowing

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

Fair Work Commission finds that Foodora delivery riders are employees

What’s the difference between a cycle courier who delivers an envelope, and a cycle courier who delivers an enchilada? The answer, it appears, is “not much”, at least according to the Fair Work Commission (FWC). Last week, the FWC handed down a decision which found that one Mr Klooger, a food delivery worker engaged by

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November 18
2018
Employment Law

Five things you need to know about the Australian Solicitors Conduct Rules (when you don’t need to know about the Australian Solicitors Conduct Rules)

If you are not a solicitor, you don’t need to know about the Australian Solicitors Conduct Rules (ASCR), yes?  Well, actually, no.  Those who are involved in the management of legal practices also need to take into account how professional conduct obligations of lawyers affect the business of law.  Equally, workplace conduct issues (in particular,

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November 12
2018
SVL in the community

Franchising Code breaches leave pasta shop franchisor in hot water

We don’t listen to a lot of psychedelic rock here at StevensVuaran Lawyers, but this week we’ve been blasting out “Are You Experienced”, the debut record by The Jimi Hendrix Experience.  We’ve been doing that not because we’re a bit slow in celebrating the album’s 50th anniversary (we were on that back in May) but

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November 20
2017
Competition and consumer law Franchising Law

How the Australian Consumer Law became a trip hazard for Meriton Serviced Apartments

“The important thing”, said Albert Einstein, “is not to stop questioning”.  Which is all very well for Einstein, but he wasn’t running a serviced apartment property at the time. When choosing accommodation in hotels and serviced apartments, consumers are increasingly reliant on reviews provided by websites such as TripAdvisor.  To collect as many reviews as

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November 10
2017
Competition and consumer law

Uber, but for the employee/contractor distinction

There are many different ways to measure the ubiquitous success of Uber, but perhaps the most telling is the extent to which the expression “Uber, but for” has become a cliché for describing start-up ideas (“Uber, but for parsley? Sure, I’d love to invest in that!”) Some of these ideas appear to be a little

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November 20
2016
Employment Law

Monitoring employees’ internet communications without being a Yahoo

It’s not often that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) gets a lot of coverage in the Australian media. However, the ECHR was front and centre this week after a decision rather luridly headlined (in the Sydney Morning Herald) as “Bosses can snoop on emails to girlfriend, European court finds”. The decision concerned a

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November 20
2016
Employment Law