Pub­li­ca­tions

Dec 7, 2011

Can you dis­miss an employ­ee for a Face­book post?

In brief – Post­ings on social media can have con­se­quences for employees An employ­ee who thinks that they may say what they want about their employ­er on Face­book with total immu­ni­ty from con­se­quences is fool­ish, accord­ing to Fair Work Aus­tralia (FWA). The rise of social media Social net­work­ing sites such as Face­book…

Dec 7, 2011

Swaab car­bon emis­sions low­est of all AusLSA law firms

In Brief In this arti­cle Legal­ly green, Lawyers Week­ly mag­a­zine has high­light­ed the efforts of the eight found­ing mem­bers of the Aus­tralian Legal Sec­tor Alliance (AusLSA) to mea­sure and reduce their car­bon footprint. …

Dec 7, 2011

Swaab Legal Direc­tions — Issue 1 April 2011

Swaab Legal Direc­tions — The first issue for 2011 of our quar­ter­ly newsletter. …

Dec 7, 2011

Exten­sion of per­son­al lia­bil­i­ty of directors

Impor­tant changes in the law gov­ern­ing a director’s lia­bil­i­ty for com­pa­ny debts have been fore­cast. The antic­i­pat­ed changes will mean that a com­pa­ny director’s per­son­al lia­bil­i­ty for com­pa­ny debts will be extend­ed to include unpaid super­an­nu­a­tion guar­an­tee con­tri­bu­tions for their companies. Direc­tors are cur­rent­ly required to cause their com­pa­ny to pay deduc­tion tax­es…

Dec 7, 2011

Is your will valid?

Pre­scribed requirements It is impor­tant that your will is writ­ten and exe­cut­ed to com­ply with the require­ments as pre­scribed under the Suc­ces­sion Act 2006 (the Act) . Essen­tial­ly the require­ments of a valid will are set out in Sec­tion 6 of the Act. A will is gen­er­al­ly invalid unless: it is in writ­ing, either…

Dec 7, 2011

Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion guide for New South Wales

In Brief Fraud in land deal­ings has long been an issue in New South Wales. Now the leg­is­la­ture is tak­ing a pre­ven­ta­tive approach to try to min­imise the inci­dence of fraud.  Whether or not these ini­tia­tives accom­plish a reduc­tion of fraud­u­lent prop­er­ty relat­ed trans­ac­tions is to be seen. Land trans­ac­tions – sec­tion 117 Wit­ness certification From…

Dec 6, 2011

Has the long-antic­i­pat­ed reg­u­la­tion of lit­i­ga­tion fund­ing final­ly arrived?

Inter­na­tion­al Lit­i­ga­tion Part­ners Pte Ltd v Chameleon Min­ing NL (2011) 276 ALR 138; [2011] NSW­CA 50; BC201101379. Introduction The recent deci­sion of the NSW Court of Appeal in Inter­na­tion­al Lit­i­ga­tion Part­ners Pte Ltd v Chameleon Min­ing NL (See Foot­note 1) has con­firmed that lit­i­ga­tion fun­ders are required to hold an Aus­tralian finan­cial…

Dec 6, 2011

What rights do par­ents have to stop their ex’s new part­ner tak­ing part in rais­ing their children

Joint parental responsibility With­out any court orders and usu­al­ly with court orders (unless it is deter­mined by the court that it is not in the best inter­ests of the chil­dren), both par­ents have joint parental respon­si­bil­i­ty. This means that it is both par­ents’ respon­si­bil­i­ty, not that of a new part­ner of…

Dec 6, 2011

Swaab employ­ment lawyer writes on unfair dis­missal for Char­tered Sec­re­taries magazine

In Brief In this arti­cle, Termi­nat­ing an employ­ee — reduc­ing the risks of unfair dis­missal claims, employ­ment lawyer Bren­dan Tay­lor exam­ines recent unfair dis­missal cas­es and high­lights the need for employ­ers to keep detailed records and abide by prin­ci­ples of pro­ce­dur­al fairness. …

Dec 6, 2011

Sen­ate Com­mit­tee report: The ade­qua­cy of pro­tec­tions for the pri­va­cy of Aus­tralians online

In brief — Pri­va­cy rec­om­men­da­tions could have a pro­found impact on all businesses A Sen­ate Com­mit­tee report has made nine rec­om­men­da­tions for changes to Aus­trali­a’s pri­va­cy régime. If imple­ment­ed, three of these will lead to sig­nif­i­cant changes to Aus­trali­a’s pri­va­cy laws, affect­ing all busi­ness­es. These are the change to the small busi­ness…