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

Jean-Paul Sartre, as it turns out, never said, “Hell is other people” (although he did use that line in his 1944 play called Huis Clos, or No Exit).  Nor, as far as our researches have disclosed, did Sartre have much to say about work health and safety.  This is perhaps surprising, given the importance of duties which are

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

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

Recent reports of deaths of fishermen off the coast of Guyana from attacks by pirates highlight the continuing existence of “Pirates of the Caribbean”. However, they are not the fun-loving, Johnny Depp type of pirates but an example of the continuing scourge of piracy in many of the world’s oceans. Although piracy off the coast

These days, it seems that everything old is new again; so if you if you are looking for a new brand, it’s a safe bet to go back to one of your old ones, yes?  Well, no, as CrownBet has just discovered in its attempt to bring back the “Sportingbet” brand back to Australian sports

“Never read the comments” is often said to be one of the cardinal rules of the Internet – indeed, if you need reminding of the importance of the rule, the Internet will helpfully supply you with T-shirts and cross-stitch patterns so that you don’t forget. However, whenever there is a rule, there will be exceptions which

Although we can help you with a wide array of legal issues at StevensVuaran Lawyers, it is fair to say that our International Humanitarian Law (IHL) practice is not enormous.   In that field of law, the people you want to speak to are the Australian Red Cross (as part of the International Red Cross and

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

[Editorial note – this article was first written by Angus in 2012 when he was at DibbsBarker.  As (a) the article is no longer available on the DibbsBarker website, following the demise of that firm and (b) the article still holds up pretty well in 2018, we have republished it for you]  Any employers who