DIRECTIONS NEWS

AUTUMN 2017

• BUSINESS LAW: Don't be a Pain! Heavy Penalties for Misleading and Deceptive Conduct.
• CORPORATE LAW: Directors Duties: Duty of Care and Diligence 
• CASE UPDATE: Take care when completing PPS registrations
• INSOLVENCY LAW: New Year, New Insolvency Pratice Rules
• NOT FOR PROFIT LAW: New Child-Safe Standards in Victoria
• EMPLOYMENT LAW: Unfair Dismissal - Dishonesty never pays
• NOT FOR PROFIT LAW: Working with Children Check Changes
• LEWIS HOLDWAY LAWYERS UPDATES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Dear ,

Happy new year to our readership! If you were fortunate enough to take some time off over the summer period, we trust that it was restful. The new calendar year is in full swing for us at Lewis Holdway and in this edition of Directions we bring a mix of useful articles as usual.

In the headline article, we outline for you recent Court decisions in consumer law. We are committed to continuing to report to you case law that sees the application of consumer law into different industries. The breadth of the law catches a lot of our clients and their businesses, so we hope these articles continue to be helpful to you in your business.

For those at board level, we have a further article on director’s duties. This comes off the back of the article about the same topic in our last edition which was well received by our readership. We cannot emphasise how important it is for business leaders to be aware of the active legal obligations placed upon them.

Speaking of being careful and aware, we have a small punchy case update for you about the perils of getting the details of registration wrong on the Personal Properties Securities Register. If your business sells and supplies goods and regularly accesses the register to perfect your interest, please pay special attention to this case update.

Elizabeth Shalders has helpfully written two articles for our not-for-profit readership about some legal changes around working with children and the new child safety standards. There are no exemptions to strict compliance so please speak with Elizabeth as soon as possible about this, if you work in the not for profit space and with children.

Adam Foster finishes this edition with an article on the cost of dishonesty and the misuse of the Small Business Code by an employer. Adam has experience in helping small to medium businesses manage employees in the context of restructures. If your business is moving into a new season of restructure or change in operational activities, put in a call to Adam so he can walk you through this process carefully.

Don't be a pain! Heavy penalties for misleading and deceptive conduct.

The scale of this penalty will no doubt change the course of future marketing strategies for organisations in this and other industries.

In December 2015 the Federal Court handed down an adverse decision against Reckitt Benckiser (the pharmaceutical manufacturer of pain relief medication “Nurofen”) for its misleading and deceptive advertising of the “specific pain relief range” of medication. The penalty, however, was considered inadequate by the ACCC, which instigated an appeal to the Full Federal Court.

DIRECTORS DUTIES: THE DUTY OF CARE AND DILIGENCE

Justice Edelman outlined the three factors that go into the consideration of whether or not there has been a breach of section 180(1). Those factors are: harm, balancing and interpretation of the section on whole.

TSince our last edition of Directions, we have received further enquiries about directors duties and how best to ensure compliance with section 180(1) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)– the obligation to exercise care and diligence in the discharge of a director’s duties.

TAKE CARE WHEN REGISTERING ON THE PPS REGISTER!

TThe recent decision of the case of In the matter of OneSteel Manufacturing Pty Ltd (Administrators Appointed) [2017] NSWSC 21 is a sobering reminder of the importance in ensuring that your PPS Registrations are accurate and in compliance with the Act.

NEW YEAR, NEW INSOLVENCY PRACTICE RULES

The new changes will strengthen the power of creditors. 

A number of changes to Australian insolvency law will come into effect in March 2017. These changes will include the Insolvency Practice Rules. The new rules will have significant impact on creditors, and are anticipated to widen creditor’s powers in external administrations.

A number of these changes are briefly discussed in this article.

NEW CHILD-SAFE STANDARDS IN VICTORIA

The standards came into force for other organisations on 1 January 2017

Compulsory new standards have come into force in Victoria.  They are designed to ensure that:

• the safety of children is promoted;
• child abuse is prevented; and
• allegations of child abuse are properly responded to.

DISHONESTY NEVER PAYS: UNFAIR DISMISSAL

The Commission would not accept a hypothetical sale of business as being grounds for a genuine redundancy.

One employer learnt the hard way what happens when you lie about the reason for terminating an employee while at the same time trying to invoke the Small Business Code as a shield from an unfair dismissal claim.

CHANGES TO WORKING WITH CHILDREN CHECK

The Victorian Parliament has now passed the changes we flagged in our December edition.  At this stage they are scheduled to come into effect on 1 August 2017.

UPDATES

Did you know you can now pay invoices online?
We are pleased to announce that online payment of your invoice by credit card is now available. Visit payment page...

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Starting a new business? Can't afford to get your documentation done by a lawyer? Spread the cost out over a year. Check out out Legal Service Packages from as little as $495 a month^. Read more...

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