Holman Webb is pleased to announce that eleven lawyers have been included in the 2024 Edition of The Best Lawyers in Australia, and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Australia. Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. 

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has ordered Booktopia Pty Ltd (‘Booktopia’) to pay $6 million dollars in penalties for breaches of the Australian Consumer Law.

Specifically, Booktopia was found to have made false and misleading representations regarding consumer rights and guarantees in the Terms of Business provided on their website, and by their customer relations and service staff working within their service centres.

Section 50C of the Limitation Act 1969 has a 3-year limit for a plaintiff to commence a personal injury claim from the date that the cause of action was ‘discoverable’. 

Section 50D of the Act says the cause of action is discoverable when the claimant knows or ought to know of the fact that:

1. the injury or death concerned has occurred,
2. the injury or death was caused by the fault of the defendant,
3. the injury was sufficiently serious to justify the bringing of an action on the cause of action.

In the 31 March 2023 Court of Appeal decision in Horne v J K Williams Contracting Pty Ltd [2023] NSWCA 58 the Court concluded that the plaintiff knew of the 3 facts soon after the accident.  The plaintiff’s push bike had collided with orange barricades on the side of the road.  

The recent Federal Court decision in Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust (NSW) v Allianz Australia Insurance Limited [2023] FCA 190 arose out of historic claims of sexual and physical abuse at Knox Grammar School in Sydney, dating back to the 1970’s.

Click through to view a recording of Holman Webb's Insurance Group's first webinar of the year: 2022 - A Year in Review.  Presented by Partner and National Insurance Group Leader John Van de Poll on Thursday 2 March 2023, this webinar examined a range of significant cases from 2022.

On 7 March 2023, the new chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, announced the Commission’s 2023-2024 Compliance and Enforcement Priorities  in relation to competition and consumer issues.

One of the top priorities is combatting ‘greenwashing’ claims by businesses.

Every so often, a case comes up that reminds us of an often forgotten undertaking that solicitors owe the court: the “Harman” undertaking.  

The Harman undertaking concerns documents or information that the court compels third parties to produce.  It operates to prevent any of the parties to litigation from using documents obtained in the course of that litigation for the purpose of other unrelated proceedings, without the leave of the court.

Generally, the court will look for special circumstances explaining why a document should be released for use in other proceedings.  Even when special circumstances are established, the court still has discretion regarding whether to authorise the release of the information. 

In late 2021, the much-anticipated Franchise Disclosure Register was announced by the government of the day. Around that time, Holman Webb dove into what the register would look like, and what franchisors would need to do to prepare for its introduction. See our November 2021 article ‘The Franchise Disclosure Register – What is it and When Does it Begin?’.  The register is now in force.

Key Takeaways:

• Franchisors must, if they haven’t already, create a profile on the Franchise Disclosure Register as soon as possible and provide the mandatory information.
   
• The profile and information provided should be updated at least annually. Franchisors should also take care to make sure the information provided is consistent with their disclosure document and key facts sheet.

Join Holman Webb's Insurance Group for our first webinar of the year: 2022 - A Year in Review.

Presented by Partner and National Insurance Group Leader John Van de Poll and taking place on Thursday 2 March 2023, this webinar will examine a range of significant cases from 2022.

In July 2022, Safe Work Australia released a new Code of Practice concerning the management of psychosocial hazards at work. This document is very similar to a Code released by SafeWork NSW in May 2021. These Codes require employers to take active steps to manage psychosocial hazards in the workplace.

Holman Webb expects that these Codes may well cause significant tension within the workplace, as they not only consider equipment and processes for doing work, they also relate to the way that staff and managers interact, and how abstract concepts such as workload and communications are managed in a way that protects workers.

The Codes are not only important for guiding employers on practices relating to the maintenance of safe workplaces – it is likely that these two Codes will form the framework through which psychological injury claims will be made and judged.  As such, it is necessary for employers to have a strong understanding of these Codes.

This two-part blog series will answer:

• What are psychosocial hazards?
• What are the requirements on employers?
• What can be done to reduce these exposures?