Congratulations to our Franchise and Retail partner, Corinne Attard who  has again been selected for the second year running by Who’s Who Legal as being among the world’s leading franchise lawyers.  Corinne acts for retailers, franchisors and master franchisees including some of the world’s most recognisable brands.

Health information can reflect a person’s medical condition (including HIV status), mental health, lifestyle, sexual preference, personal history (in terms of sexual or other abuse), family and beliefs.  This information can be valuable not only in terms of clinical care but also in relation to medical research, population planning, genetic profiling, personalised medicine, workers compensation, insurance profiles and, in cases dealing with paternity, custody and other disputes.

Holman Webb is delighted to be included in the list of the nation's fastest growing firms in The Australian Legal Partnership Survey, Friday 26 June 2015.

Welcome to our second edition of the Holman Webb Insurance Law Bulletin.

Readers may recall a short article that was published in our Corporate and Commercial newsletter on Cyber Security which drew attention to the steps that can be taken in order to assist in the prevention of cyber-attacks (please click here to read this article). Further to that article, ASIC has recently published a report on cyber resilience which is intended to help regulated organisations improve their ability to prepare and respond to cyber-attacks.

Our quarterly publication will keep you up to date with news and developments in business, corporate and commercial law.

In January 2015 the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner published a guide to "securing personal information" by recommending reasonable steps to protect personal information.

On January 28, 2015 the High Court ruled that the detention of asylum seekers at sea in what is known as the "contiguous zone" is authorised by the Maritime Powers Act 2013.  157 passengers were on board an Indian flagged vessel.  One of them claimed false imprisonment.  The High Court rejected this.  The vessel had been intercepted by an Australian border protection ship in the Indian Ocean within Australia's contiguous zone.  The vessel was detained, and once it became unseaworthy the passengers were transferred to the Australian vessel. 

Cloud storage and the protection of personal information is a vexed and difficult issue to deal with.  Under the Australian Privacy legislation a local entity that provides personal information to a storage facility outside Australia may be exposed to liability that arises if the external storage provider breaches the Australian Privacy Principles.

Five Things to Know About Electronic Communications:

• "Click Wrap" agreements;
• When is an email received;
• 'Meeting of the minds';
• Input errors; and
• Electronic signatures