Dispute Resolution & Insolvency
An Insurer’s Duty of Utmost Good Faith
June 30, 2021Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Youi Pty Ltd [2020] FCA 1701 The Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia (Allsop CJ)...
Jurisdiction Clauses: A Primer
June 30, 2021It’s an all too common scenario: Company A is based in South Australia; Company B is based in Queensland; Company A provides services...
When are Directors Liable for Misleading or Deceptive Conduct, Passing off, Trade Mark Infringement or Unconscionable Conduct?
June 30, 2021“What is the line between inspiration and appropriation?” This is how Federal Court Judge the Honourable Justice Katzmann began her 75-page judgment on...
Two of a Kind: Federal Court Refuses to See Double in Case of Identical Pharmaceutical Products
June 30, 2021Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Australia Pty Ltd (No 2) [2020] FCA 724 In 2016, the Federal Court ordered Reckitt...
Debt Recovery and Maximising Costs Recoveries
December 17, 2020No business wants the cashflow interruption or the diversion of attention that having to chase a debt brings. Almost inevitably, though, businesses at...
Onus of Proof in Tax Disputes
December 17, 2020For taxpayers engaged in matters with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) where facts are in dispute, the ATO will point out that the...
A Win for Women in Pelvic Mesh Class Action – for the Moment …
December 17, 2020GILL v ETHICON SÁRL & ORS (NO 5) [2019] FCA 1905 This was a representative proceeding under Part IVA of the Federal Court...
Building and Construction Contracts: The Importance of Good Contract Administration
December 17, 2020Adelaide’s landscape is constantly changing. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has stymied the growth of many industries, the State Government’s Renew Adelaide project and...
King Reigns All: High Court Decides Holding Companies May Be Held Accountable for Subsidiary Company Actions
December 17, 2020The High Court of Australia decision broadens section 9 of the Corporations Act 2001 interpretation, meaning that potentially anyone can be considered an...
COVID-19: Changes in the Court System You Need to Know About
April 23, 2020With the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation, it can be challenging to keep up with the changes to the South Australian legal system. This...
Federal Government Announces Temporary Changes to Insolvency Laws
March 26, 2020Relief for Financially Distressed Businesses After acknowledging that measures to slow the spread of coronavirus could cause many otherwise profitable businesses to face...
Wills: Greedy v Needy
July 4, 2018Dissecting Decisions: Swanson v Reis [2018] SASC 20 An Inheritance (Family Provision) claim has been dismissed on the first limb for the first...
Set-off Defence Gains Ground in Unfair Preference Claims
July 4, 2018Is Morton v Rexel Electrical Supplies Pty Ltd [2015] QDC 49 (Rexel) gaining ground across Australia? In 2015, Queensland District Court Judge Searles...
Contract Termination for Insolvency – Not Anymore!
July 4, 2018So you think that you have the right to terminate a contract if the other side is insolvent? Maybe not as of 1...
Australian Executor Trustee Ltd v Suncorp Life
November 8, 2017Arson by Deceased Leads to Claim on Life Insurance Policy Summary In 2008 a house on the outskirts of Renmark in the South...
Client Profile: The Royal Agricultural & Horticultural Society of SA Inc
October 31, 2017With the fun, competition and pageantry of the Adelaide Show over for another year, we take a peek behind the scenes at the...
Succession Law: Tiburzi v Butler [2017] SASCFC 89 (28 July 2017)
October 31, 2017What seems grossly unjust at first glance, is often more complicated than we think. A tale often told, a father passes away, leaving...
The Risks of Acting for/as Trustee Companies
October 31, 2017The trustee has been quoted to be the ‘archetype of a fiduciary’.[1] The trustee and beneficiary relationship is the most traditional fiduciary relationship...
Copyright Infringement
October 31, 2017The imitation game: the perils of copying a developer’s code How much pre-existing source code can a software or firmware developer use before...
Oppression Claims by Minority Shareholders
October 31, 2017Have you or are you being oppressed? Companies are, more often than not, controlled by a single shareholder or a group of shareholders....
DW Fox Tucker Partners With One of SA’s Oldest Law Firms
June 22, 2017If you’ve lived in South Australia for any length of time, you may have heard of Mouldens. Founded in 1851 Mouldens are highly...
The ‘Stepping Stone’ Doctrine
June 22, 2017Are Directors Liable for their Company’s Contraventions of the Corporations Act? The ‘stepping stone’ doctrine is the term used to describe an action...
A Safe Harbour From Insolvent Trading?
June 22, 2017In late March 2017, draft reform legislation in relation to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (“the Act”) was introduced as part of the...
When Should “Without Prejudice” Be Used?
June 22, 2017It’s a common, and often savvy, tool used in negotiations and disputes, however, can marking your correspondence as “without prejudice” actually have the...
Inheritance Disputes
December 16, 2016It is an unfortunate, but all too common, scenario that upon the death of a family member – usually a parent – the...
Solicitor’s Duty of Care
May 26, 2016“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers” William Shakespeare (1564-1616). But then who will we have left to sue? It...
Liquidator’s Beware – Selling Assets of an Insolvent Corporate Trustee
February 15, 2016Can a liquidator of a Corporate Trustee sell assets previously held in the name of that trustee if the Company is no longer...
Litigation Funding in Recovery Proceedings
February 15, 2016A “make work scheme”? Can liquidators pursue preference claims which, in isolation, may do no more than pay for the cost of the...
A Personally Injured Bankrupt?
February 15, 2016Does damage to “body, mind and soul” in commercial proceedings amount to “personal injury”? In Garrett v Mildara Blass Limited [2015] SASC 176...
Strategy is King
September 7, 2015“If you must be in a hurry, then let it be according to the old adage, and hasten slowly” – Saint Vincent de...