The decision of O’Callaghan J in the Federal Court at Victoria in Neville’s Bus Service Pty Limited v Pitcher Partners Consulting Pty Limited & Ors [2018] FCA 2098 sends a salutary warning to professionals to act honestly and appropriately as soon as they discover that they, or colleagues whom they supervise, may have made a […]
INSIGHT: Made a mistake? Tell the client asap or risk a finding of deceit
INSIGHT: The Storm has passed!
On 22 March 2018, Justice Dowsett of the Federal Court in Queensland imposed civil penalties of $70,000 each on Mr and Mrs Cassimatis (Mr and Mrs C), the directors of Storm Financial and disqualified them from managing corporations for 7 years: ASIC v Cassimatis (No 9) [2018] FCA 385. Justice Edelman had previously found they […]
INSIGHT: Release of Insurance in Superannuation Voluntary Code of Practice
On 18 December 2017, the Insurance in Superannuation Working Group (ISWG) released the “Insurance in Superannuation Voluntary Code of Practice” (the Code) for superannuation trustees. The ISWG is comprised of Australia’s superannuation bodies, the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST), the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) and the Financial Services Council (FSC). The […]
INSIGHT: APRA reviewing Life Insurer’s Reinsurance Arrangements
APRA has informed life insurers that it is reviewing the requirements of prudential standard LPS 230 Reinsurance (LPS 230) as they relate to financial reinsurance. APRA has invited feedback from life insurers and other interested parties on its proposal to align the approach taken to financial reinsurance in life insurance industry to the approach taken […]
INSIGHT: Expanded Protection for Whistleblowers in Corporate, Financial and Credit Sectors including Tax Misconduct
On 23 October 2017, the Commonwealth Government released an exposure draft of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Whistleblowers) Bill 2017 which contains significant reforms to Australia’s private sector whistleblower laws. The new regime will offer protection to whistleblowers in the corporate, financial and credit sectors and will introduce new protections for tax whistleblowers. The proposed legislation […]
INSIGHT: Wright and Wrong
The Federal Court in Victoria recently considered an appeal by ASIC against a decision of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) which arose out of a rather bizarre set of circumstances. In the AAT proceedings, ASIC sought a banning order pursuant to Section 920A(1) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (the Act) in respect of a […]
INSIGHT: Court’s disdain for disability claim
Justice Pembroke’s decision in Doltic v Hannover Life Re of Australasia Limited in the Supreme Court of New South Wales on 27 July 2017 is interesting not because it creates any new law but because of His Honour’s erudite assessment of the plaintiff’s case. Following a motor accident in 2009, which Justice Pembroke described as […]
INSIGHT: General insurers need to be ever mindful of best practice advertising
It is essential for the general insurance industry to maintain proper standards of advertising. The general insurance industry is a prudential business. It is regulated by our prudential regulator APRA and it is also subject to scrutiny by the other regulators including the corporation’s regulator ASIC, the competition regulator, the ACCC and the tax regulator, […]
INSIGHT: Meridian Lawyers successful in long-running professional negligence case
Meridian Lawyers has successfully defended a long-running professional negligence case against a solicitor. Case note: Borgese [2017] NSWSC 92: The plaintiff, Domenico Borgese, was born into a family of orchardists near Leeton. He lived with his five sisters and his parents, Carmella and Giuseppe on the family farm. The plaintiff left school at an early age to […]
INSIGHT: Breach of confidence: royal affairs
Borgese [2017] NSWSC 92: What I love about my work as a lawyer is that every case is different. With each case I prepare, I invariably find something of interest and I learn from the experience. Last week, I had the pleasure of successfully defending a professional negligence case against a solicitor in the Supreme […]