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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

Can a contract prevent your customers from poaching your employees?

It is common for employment contracts to contain post-employment restraints, but it is less common to see clauses in agreements with customers (for example, in services agreements) which prevent the customers of a business from “poaching” the employees of the business. There are good reasons for this – when post-employment restraints are dealt with in

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February 5
2019
Employment 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

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

Vicarious liability in Australia – fit for purpose, or fit for “akin”?

When legal liability is imposed upon one person for the misdeeds of another, even though the first person is themselves blameless, this liability is described as “vicarious liability”.  In Australia, vicarious liability arises most often when an employer is held to be liable for the torts of an employee.  Australian law has developed two “central conceptions” in relation to such

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October 1
2018
Employment Law Litigation and dispute resolution

Avoiding contempt of court for breach of freezing orders: it’s a matter of trust

When we are not writing about things which we think are worth knowing here on the “Worth Knowing” section of this website, we can sometimes be found writing about things which we think are worth knowing in other publications. This month, Angus has an article in the Law Society of NSW Journal on a recent

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September 3
2018
Litigation and dispute resolution SVL in the community

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

Say it isn’t so – the oral variation of contracts which prohibit oral variation

If a contract says that it can only be varied in writing, then it can only be varied in writing, yes? Well, actually (under Australian law), it ain’t necessarily so.  Perhaps surprisingly, Australian law will give effect to oral variations of contracts even if the contract contains a “no oral variation” (or as it is

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June 15
2018
Commercial Law Litigation and dispute resolution

Freezing orders against ex-employees – when should employers move in for the chill?

The discovery that a formerly trusted employee has been defrauding their employer throws up a lot of questions.  How could this have happened? Do I have to involve the police?  And sometimes most importantly, am I ever going to see the stolen money again? Freeze a jolly bad fellow (allegedly) The answer to the third

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May 13
2018
Employment Law Litigation and dispute resolution

In Mad Max dispute, all (Fury) roads lead to arbitration

So, let’s play a little word association game – what do you come up with if we give you “Mad Max” and “alternative dispute resolution”? There are, of course, a few different possibilities.   You might be thinking of the crowd in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome chanting, “Bust a deal, face the wheel” (which is one

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April 27
2018
Commercial Law Litigation and dispute resolution
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