BEFORE YOU BUY – DUE DILIGENCE
The property market is booming and everyone is scrambling over each other to get into it. We get calls all week: there’s an auction Saturday, can you review a contract quickly. Well, we sure can, but there is an unfortunate circularity around real estate due diligence – how do you get over the property quality […]
JP Morgan Corporate Challenge Event
On Wednesday 13 November 2013 CML Lawyers put away their pens and paper and participated in the 37th JP Morgan Corporate challenge, a 5.6km run around Centennial Park. The challenge supports charities all around the world. This year more than $700,000 will be donated from the proceeds of the challenge. The profits generated in […]
CLEARING THE FOG FOR PROSPECTIVE RESIDENTS – IMPORTANT CHANGES TO RETIREMENT VILLAGE LAW
The decision to sell up and move into a retirement village is a big one. This life changing decision is made none the easier where buyers are given complex contracts, many types of different fees and capital gains tax structure that favour retirement village operators ahead of residents. The Turneresque mists of documents, fees and […]
Building defects – liability of the builder to a subsequent owner
On 25 September, 2013 the NSW Court of Appeal handed down judgment in The Owners – Strata Plan No 61288 v Brookfield Australia Investments Ltd. Brookfield (then called Multiplex Constructions Pty Ltd) constructed serviced apartments under a construction contract with a Developer. Following completion of the building a strata plan was registered. Latent defects in the serviced apartments were later discovered […]
Poached Talent Fried on Costs
The longstanding battle between HRX and Talent2 has erupted again, this time with Talent2 losing out to HRX. A number of HRX employees have left HRX for Talent2. However it was the departure of Mr Scott to Talent2 that led to Talent2, that was not even a party to the litigation, being ordered to pay […]
CASUAL APPROACH TO LOADING TRIGGERS $50K IN FINES
A recent Federal Circuit Court decision demonstrates that the Fair Work Commission (‘FWC’) is taking the underpayment of workers’ wages and entitlements seriously. During the three years that Gail Keen was a casual employee of New Image Photographics Pty Ltd (‘New Image’) she was underpaid $19,314 due to New Image’s disregard for the minimum wage, […]
Does your company own your CEO’s emails?
A UK court has found that a company does not own its CEO’s emails if they are not held on its servers. A former CEO of a UK company had his company emails automatically forwarded to his personal email address. A dispute arose around the construction of a 50,000 dead weight tonnage vessel, relating to […]
Restraining ex-employees from poaching clients
Contracts to stop an ex-employee from poaching a company’s clients need to be carefully worded. A post-employment solicitation restraint is a clause in an employment contract that seeks to ensure employees leaving a company do not take the company’s existing clients with them. This generally means an employee is forbidden from advertising or soliciting custom […]
BYO Devices – The risk and trends
As more employees use their own devices to do work, businesses need to be aware of privacy, security and intellectual property rights issues. The current shift in working practices – from the traditional nine-to-five work day based in an office to working remotely and being connected 24/7 – has led to the rise in cloud […]
SMALL PAYOUT FOR WORKPLACE HARASSMENT
Rebecca Richardson, ex-employee of software company Oracle, was recently awarded a measly $18,000 for 6 months of humiliating sexual harassment by a colleague. It was Oracle itself who had to foot the bill, being held vicariously liable for the conduct of its employee. This case may herald a softening in penalties related to sexual harassment […]