Deed of family arrangement could protect your estate after de facto separation
Work on waterfront land requires approval
“Our employee was using a knife to peel an orange. How could we be negligent?” Which case won?
A case in Queensland revolved around the question of whether a man was negligent when he accidentally injured his colleague with a knife.
A construction worker was walking along a footpath adjacent to a building site, returning at the end of lunchbreak from his parked car, when he suddenly felt a shooting pain his hand and realised he had been stabbed by his coworker’s knife.
At the time of the incident, the coworker was on his lunchbreak on a grassed area immediately adjacent to the site, as there was no designated eating area. Workers frequently traversed this grassed area.
The coworker had been crouching down, peeling an orange with a long, sharp knife that he used on the site to remove and replace asphalt.
Just as he stood up from his crouched position while still holding the unsheathed knife, the construction worker walked past.
Without any intention to do so, the coworker stabbed the construction worker in his left hand.
The construction worker suffered damage to nerves in two of his fingers, tendons in one of them and arteries in another. He developed ongoing symptoms which impaired his ability to participate in many former activities, and he developed major depression.
Cyberstalking on the rise with technological advances
Did the trade mark “Post without the office” breach Australia Post’s intellectual property? Which case won?
Sendle Pty Ltd is a Sydney-based parcel delivery company that provides low-cost, door-to-door delivery, enabling customers to avoid physically attending a post office to send parcels.
As a start-up back in 2014, Sendle lodged an application to register the trade mark “Post without the office”.
In 2015, Australia Post filed a Notice of Intention to Oppose the registration, arguing that the phrase was a breach of the Trade Marks Act because it was deceptively similar to its own trade marks and likely to mislead consumers.
The matter came before the Australian Trade Marks Office for hearing in February 2017.
“My son forged my signature on a fraudulent mortgage and that house belongs to me.” Which case won?
Ms I was an 83-year-old woman who owned a property on Queensland’s Gold Coast.
In June 2017, Ms I’s son mortgaged the property as security for a $1 million loan to the family business.
He did so without his mother’s knowledge by forging her signature on the mortgage documentation.
He then defaulted on the loan.
Illegal building works – the horror story edition
Was the binding financial agreement unfair? Did the court set it aside? Which case won?
A binding financial agreement (also commonly known as a prenuptial agreement or “prenup”) is an agreement made between two people that sets out how they want their affairs to be arranged if their relationship ends.
These agreements can be made before, during or after a marriage or de facto relationship, including for a same sex relationship.
A binding financial agreement is a formal document made under the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth), but it is not reviewed or approved by the Family Court and, as long as it complies with the requirements set out in the Act, the court has no jurisdiction to adjust it.
Should 16-year-olds be allowed to vote?
“If I’d had a safe system of work, I wouldn’t be injured.” Which case won?
A case in 2019 examined the question of whether a race club had provided one of its casual employees with a safe system of work.
Because of the big crowd of racegoers, and copious supplies of food and drink (which could be brought in or purchased), more than a hundred 240-litre wheelie bins were placed at various locations around the racecourse.
The bins had soft plastic bin liners placed in them and were positioned in groups at various locations. Some were on paved areas, but others on grass.
On one of these grassed areas (with a moderate but unquantified slope) was a group of six bins. Despite the worker’s emphatic evidence to the contrary, the trial judge accepted that the bins were placed back-to-back, with their handles touching.
About twenty metres away from these bins was a garbage skip, where full bin liners were dumped. It was accepted that the weight of a full bin liner could vary considerably, depending on the mix of food waste and lightweight items, such as empty cardboard cups and drink cans.
Can I become bankrupt to get rid of my debts?
New online defamation defence for publishers “innocently disseminating” third party comments
New “post and boast” law can end in jail
“I endured regular abuse at my hospital job and I want compensation for PTSD” – which case won?
A case in 2023 concerned a woman who worked as a nurse and made a claim for compensation for PTSD.
The woman worked in the emergency department of a hospital in northern NSW from 2011 to 31 January 2019.
Staff in the emergency department were regularly subject to abuse by patients.
Around 2015, the nurse had a particularly upsetting encounter with a patient, LF, who was verbally abusive, yelled profanities at her and threw a blood pressure monitor across the room.
On 31 January 2019, when the nurse arrived for her shift, she saw LF’s name on the patient handover sheet. She began crying uncontrollably and suffered a panic attack for the first time.
She left work that day and has been unable to work since.
The nurse was diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Changes to labour hire laws for “same work same pay”
NSW police insurance scheme ends lump sum payments for TPD
You’ve had a windfall and won lotto! To keep it you’d best get expert advice
