Category: Litigation & Dispute Resolution

In a recent decision¹, the Supreme Court of Victoria has found that Viterra² and its parent company Glencore³ engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct during their $420 million sale of a malting business, Joe White Maltings Pty Ltd (Joe White), to Cargill⁴.

The case of Kennedy v Proctor [2021 VSC 521] concerns a dispute as to whether a horse known as ‘Ishker’ was loaned or gifted by Ms Kennedy to Ms Proctor. It was a decision appealed from the Magistrates’ Court to the Court of Appeal.

The COVID-19 pandemic is having an unprecedented impact on the economy. The effects of escalating government counter-measures will change the way we do business for the foreseeable future.

Transporting goods by road can be a risky and expensive process.

The risk of damage to or loss of goods transported by road is a real concern for not only the seller and buyer of those goods but also the private carrier responsible for transporting the goods.

Earlier this month in MWP Transport Pty Ltd & Ors v Kent & Ors [2018] NSWSC 300, the Supreme Court of New South Wales granted a transport company a freezing order over the assets of its group’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and a number of his companies after he admitted to theft of more than $5 million over an extended period.

Tourism and hospitality operators and retailers are being urged to smarten up on their legal rights regarding online reviews as the busy summer holiday season gets underway.

Important insolvency reforms recently passed into law as a result of the Treasury Laws Amendment (2017 Enterprise Incentives No. 2) Act 2017 (Cth) (TLA Act).

Rigby Cooke Lawyers has appointed Senior Associate Katerina Poulakis to the team, boosting its litigation and dispute resolution credentials.

Many of our clients trade with customers on credit. When doing so, there is a risk that customers might be unable to pay.

Prudent business owners will go to great lengths to protect their intellectual property and confidential information from their employees and competitors.

One of the golden rules when entering into an agreement is to ensure that all the terms are recorded in writing and signed by the relevant parties. As the old saying goes, a verbal agreement is as good as the paper it is written on.

In a sobering lesson for trucking companies, the Industrial Relations Court of South Australia has ordered Atkins Freight Services Pty Ltd (Atkins Freight), an Adelaide transport company, to pay penalties of $93,000 and back-pay more than $374,000 to 10 truck drivers.

A recent decision of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) is a timely reminder for experts, lawyers and their clients of the importance of ‘getting it right’ with expert reports in order to best assist Courts and Tribunals to make proper determinations of disputes.

Many businesses are familiar with engaging a software developer to create a product or application, however the devil is in the detail when it comes to ownership of the end product.

Recently in Pt Bayan Resources TBK v BCBC Singapore Pty Ltd [2015] HCA 36, the High Court of Australia held that the Supreme Court of Western Australia has the inherent power to issue a freezing order relating to a pending judgment in a foreign court, which would be registrable in Australia pursuant to the Foreign Judgments Act 1991 (Cth).

Rigby Cooke Lawyers has continued its expansion program recruiting new partner Demian Walton to its Litigation and Dispute Resolution Group.

Rigby Cooke Lawyers’ Executive Chairman, Bill Karvela says,

From time to time, where a party becomes aware that there is a risk that assets of another party to a dispute may be disposed of, it is necessary to apply to the Court for a freezing order.

From time to time clients of ours find themselves in the position where they need to seek an intervention order (known in some states as an Apprehended Violence Order or ‘AVO’), usually in cases where they have been threatened by another party.

The avid readers of InDispute may recall that each year our commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution team act in numerous shareholder dispute matters.  These past 12 months have been no exception.

If you were served with a subpoena to produce documents to Court, would you know what to do and how to respond to it?