Commercial

Litigation practitioners should be aware that there have been a number of recent Supreme Court decisions where late adjournments of trial dates have been sought and refused by the Court.

Further changes are being made to defamation laws in multiple Australian jurisdictions—including Victoria— especially with respect to online publications. This article identifies some of the key changes and associated risks for defamation practitioners.

Legislative changes address recent decisions regarding the extent of VCAT’s jurisdiction.

Recent decisions in the Supreme Court of Victoria and the Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) have upturned assumptions about the extent of VCAT’s jurisdiction with wide-reaching implications for litigants and legal practitioners.

It can be easy for parties in dispute to overlook limitation periods while settlement discussions are happening. This article covers some simple risk management measures parties can take to prevent their claim from being time barred and the practitioner also being faced with a professional negligence claim.

Effective litigation practitioners prepare well and prepare early. A recent judgement in the Supreme Court of Victoria reinforced this message when an application for adjournment of a trial date was met with an indemnity cost order against the solicitors seeking the adjournment.

The amendments to the insolvency regime in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cwlth) to restrict the rights of parties to enforce ipso facto clauses in new contracts came into effect on 1 July 2018.

Practitioners are finding that some clients are insisting on doing parts of litigation matters themselves, primarily to save legal costs. If you are prepared to accept a limited retainer, you need to manage the risks.

When acting in litigation, it is essential to take detailed instructions about any circumstances that weaken your client’s case in addition to those that support the case.

Where a client wants to pursue a claim on a matter of principle for nominal damages, practitioners need to consider their overarching obligations under the Civil Procedure Act 2010 (Vic).

Tactics are an essential part of mediations as practitioners seek to reach an outcome favourable to their clients. However, there are legal and ethical limits to how far practitioners can go in settlement negotiations. Practitioners in mediations should be mindful of the provisions of Part 2.3 of the Civil Procedure Act 2010 (Vic) and section 18 of Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cwlth), known as The Australian Consumer Law.

The insolvency regime in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cwlth) has been amended to restrict the rights of parties to enforce ipso facto clauses in new contracts from the 1 July 2018 unless the amending Treasury Laws Amendment (2017 Enterprise Incentives No. 2) Act 2017 (Cwlth) is proclaimed earlier.