Articles
We aim to provide you with proactive and strategic legal and practical advice. Our articles provide a range of interesting and helpful insights on a vast array of topics.
Preventing Misrepresentation in Recruitment
Australian Consumer Law (ACL) contains protections for prospective employees against false or misleading representations made during the recruitment process. It is critical that employers are aware of this, and how to avoid falling foul of the law, as Anthony Sangster Robles explains.
Federal Court Overturns ATO Position on Trust Distributions: What It Means for Family Trusts
Mitchell Zadow, Managing Principal and Accredited Commercial Law Specialist, reviews a recent case where the Full Federal Court rejected the Australian Taxation Office's long-standing position on how unpaid trust distributions should be treated for tax purposes.
Wage Theft Laws: What Employers Need to Know
Administrative errors and dormant policies can no longer be blamed for the intentional underpayment of wages and other entitlements. Employment Lawyer Anthony Sangster Robles takes a look at Section 327A of the Fair Work Act which rings in serious legal consequences for directors, managers and shareholders found in breach.
Protecting Legal Professional Privilege - Tips and Tricks!
The final article in our three-part series on Legal Professional Privilege (“privilege”) provides some useful tips for ensuring that the privilege in your legal advice and in the material created for and by your lawyer for the purposes of providing legal advice, is protected from inadvertent or deliberate disclosure and thus waiver of the privilege.
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Understanding the 7.5% Short Stay Levy: Essential Insights for Accommodation Providers
A new 7.5% short stay levy applies to short-term accommodation bookings in Victoria — find out how this impacts you, who pays for the levy, and how to avoid penalties. Property Lawyer Coco Yu explains.
Recent articles
Unconscionable Conduct in Leasing
Unfortunately, there is no easy definition of what a Court would consider to be unconscionable conduct in a Lease. The Retail Leases Act sets out various factors to be considered when assessing a party's conduct.
Estate planning and family law: Protecting the inheritance from family law claims
When parents are passing on their wealth to the next generation, they are often concerned that it not fall into unintended hands. Primarily, this concern relates to the potential for a child's spouse to receive a payment from the inheritance in a Family Law settlement.
Committee Members: Do you know your duties?
If you thought that only company directors have to worry about insolvent trading, you would be wrong. Many of the duties that apply to company directors also apply to the committee members of Incorporated Associations!
Powers of Attorney Act 2014: Protection of disabled and elderly from financial abuse
On 1 September 2015, the new Powers of Attorney Act 2014 (Vic) commenced operation in Victoria. The new regime is intended to assist in preventing financial abuse of the disabled and elderly and to make it easier for these people to give effect to their decisions.
Be alert to ATO action!
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has recently been cracking down on certain activities of Family Trusts, particularly in relation to certain arrangements for distributing income from the Trust to beneficiaries. Some of the activities that the ATO is examining closely are "gift back" arrangements. Andre Ong explains.
Representations to secure a tenant: binding or just a sales pitch?
There is always a fine line between the expected 'sales pitch' and a genuine representation or promise to get a Tenant over the line. Care needs to be taken when offering incentives to a Tenant and it is in the interests of both parties that all terms that are intended to be binding are included in the Lease document.
Landlords beware! How safe is your security deposit?
In a lease, security deposits are funds provided by a Tenant and held by the Landlord or Landlord's agent, as security for performance of a number of Tenant obligations pursuant to the lease.
Essential safety measures: Who pays?
Over the past few years, there have been conflicting views on whether a Landlord or a Tenant was responsible for the expense of essential safety measures ('ESM') in rented premises.
Restraint of Trade: Protecting your business from ex-employees
The safest course for employers is to ensure that their employee contracts contain a restraint-of-trade clause, with such restraints being fair, reasonable and legally enforceable. A well-drafted contract can protect an employer in a way that is much more efficient and cost-effective than Court proceedings!
Duties of directors: Conflicts of interest
Corporate governance is heavily regulated in Australia. A director's duty to avoid a conflict of interest was introduced to ensure that directors act in the best interests of the company. A breach of the duty to avoid any conflict of interest will have serious consequences for both the director and the company. Mitchell Zadow explains.
Superannuation for Contractors: What you need to know
Businesses have an obligation to pay superannuation for their employees. But did you know that you may also have an obligation to pay superannuation for contractors? Read here for more.
'Be real' in marketing to prospective tenants
As a Landlord, be aware of what you or your agents are saying and showing to a Tenant. Always ensure that you have reasonable grounds to make those representations. In order to be effective, any legal disclaimer needs to be prominent, specific to the circumstance and a clear part of the overall picture of the premises being represented to a prospective Tenant.
