JHK Legal Commerical Articles

Residential building work is a significant component of the construction industry in Australia. As such there is extensive regulation of licencing, contracting and schemes for home warranty insurance throughout the jurisdictions. Relevant legislation which regulates residential building work and specialist work in New South Wales includes the Home Building Act 1989 (NSW) (“Act”) and the…

Public examinations provide a powerful tool for liquidators to obtain information and establish facts about matters regarding a company’s affairs, history and management.

Pursuant to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“the Privacy Act”), an entity to which the Australian Privacy Principles apply is known as an APP. If it discloses, or collects, personal information about another individual for a benefit, service or advantage then it will be considered an APP.

Under Section 5(1)(a) the Limitation of Actions Act 19578 (Vic) (“the Act”) a party is barred from bringing an action in contract, including contract implied in law, more than six years after the date on which the cause of action arose.

The New South Wales government has announced the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Amendment Act 2018 (NSW) (the Amendment Act) commenced on 21 October 2019. The Amendment Act only applies to construction contracts entered into after the commencement date. The amendments are broad and include the following significant reforms: The ‘reference date’ concept…

While the scope of this article focuses on unfair dismissal claims in the Fair Work Commission (the Commission), it is important that employers and employees take legal advice regarding the issues discussed within this article. In particular, employers should always consider their legal position including their rights and obligations under the Fair Work Act carefully…

Practitioners’ remuneration has been under extensive scrutiny by courts, and liquidators continue to struggle to get their remuneration approved without having to adduce extensive evidence of the necessity of the work conducted and the reasonableness of their remuneration. In recent years there has been much focus on insolvency practitioners’ fees, including whether the tasks conducted…

A recent decision of the Queensland Supreme Court has relevance to duty considerations for estate planning. In Queensland, the assets of a deceased person are subject to potential family provision application claims.  The result of any such claim is that the Court is able to reallocate and redistribute the assets of a deceased having regard…

As Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1789, “nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes”. We’ve come a long way since then and with some more positive certainties in life; happiness, love and Netflix were just a few that sprung to mind. Unfortunately Mr Franklin’s famous saying still prevails today and at some…

Excellent news – you’ve decided to start up your own café (small business) and have found the perfect vacant premises! However, after reviewing the contract yourself, you notice some clauses which seem alarming including auto-renewal clauses, variation of rental prices at the landlord’s discretion and unlimited indemnity clauses. With pressure mounting from the landlord to…