On 12 September 2024, the long awaited statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy has been revealed in Schedule 1 to the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 (Cth) (the Privacy Bill). Please see our previous...more
In Bolwell & Anor v NWC Finance Pty Ltd & Ors [2024] VSC 30, the Supreme Court of Victoria clarified that a lawyer will not be a "controller" of property within the meaning of section 9 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (the...more
On 8 February 2024, the High Court of Australia refused to grant the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne (Archdiocese) special leave to appeal from the Victorian Court of Appeal’s decision in The Catholic Archdiocese of...more
The question of vicarious liability in the context of nonemployment relationships has been a key issue confronting courts dealing with institutional sexual abuse claims. Indeed, the High Court of Australia will soon deliver...more
Introduction - To many people’s surprise, it remains the case in Australia that individuals do not have a specific right to obtain compensatory damages for serious invasions of privacy, such as the sharing of intimate images...more
In 2021, one of the most significant changes to Australian defamation legislation, in most states and territories (save for Western Australia and the Northern Territory), was the introduction of a "serious harm" threshold to...more
When a dispute of any kind is resolved, a "non-disparagement" clause is often included in the settlement agreement to prevent parties from adversely commenting publicly about each other in the future. Especially where there...more
The Victorian Supreme Court (the Court) recently upheld a statutory qualified privilege defence in novel circumstances. The defence was applied in respect of what were otherwise found to be defamatory Google reviews. This was...more
In Commissioner of Taxation v PricewaterhouseCoopers [2022] FCA 278, the Federal Court of Australia has found that the majority of 116 sample documents considered by it were not subject to legal professional privilege and...more
The New South Wales Supreme Court has recently delivered its judgment in Newman v Whittington [2022] NSWSC 249 (Newman), providing the first Australian judicial consideration of the "serious harm" threshold now found in the...more
The majority of the High Court of Australia has dismissed the appeal of three media organisations from the decision of the New South Wales Court of Appeal and affirmed they were 'publishers' of comments left by third party...more
A NEW ERA FOR AUSTRALIAN DEFAMATION LAW - Following Stage 1 of the review of the Model Defamation Provisions, the Model Defamation Amendment Provisions recently commenced in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia,...more