This year's AICLA-ANZIIF Claims Convention program examined the changing nature of the insurance claims business.  The conference covered a variety of issues including business development, offshoring, cyber security, fraud, professional privilege and how social media will change the claims sector.

The Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (PPSA) required a review of the operations of the Act to be undertaken within 3 years of its implementation.  The review recognised that there were various aspects of the legislation that would need time to work their way into the corporate consciousness of Australian businesses and an assessment of industry understanding of the PPSA was an appropriate mechanism to ensure compliance and ongoing protection.

Disclosure documents need to be updated annually and businesses must provide their current information by the end of October 2013. While many franchisors tend to wait until the last minute to finalise the update, in 2013, there are a few issues to be aware of - which could mean you start this job earlier than usual.

The High Court’s recent decision in Sidhu v Van Dyke means that if you have relied on a promise and the other party has resiled from that promise to your detriment, you will need to prove that you relied on that promise and suffered a loss as a result.

In the United States, the issue of the competition between ‘bricks and mortar’ retail franchises and the online channel conducted by the franchisor has taken front place as the new form of “encroachment” claim made by franchisees in recent years.  In Australia our mandatory franchise disclosure document under the Franchising Code of Conduct requires prior disclosure to a franchisee of information relating to the franchise “territory”, but it refers to a physical geographic territory only and does not address encroachment through alternative channels of distribution, such as e-commerce.  This has been remedied with the proposed new form of disclosure document due for commencement from 1 January 2015.  (Note the new form is not law yet).

Two recent decisions of the Federal Court and the New South Wales Supreme Court can be of assistance to insurers to avoid providing certain documents to opponents. Some correspondence with witnesses, including expert witnesses, and drafts of reports and statements do not have to be produced if legal professional privilege applies to the documents (i.e. if the documents were created for the dominant purpose of a lawyer providing legal advice or for the purpose of litigation).

Introduction

Advance care directives, also known as living wills or advance care planning, enable a person over the age of 18, who is mentally competent, to express their wishes in relation to future medical care and treatment.

There has been some recent speculation amongst franchise lawyers about the potential impact of the recent Federal Court appeal decision in the case of Spar Licensing Pty Ltd v MIS Qld Pty Ltd (1 May 2014) on the practice of giving disclosure documents to prospective franchisees.  The decision raises some doubts about when to update the disclosure document.

Who is an employee?

An employee performs work under the ‘control’ of another person in exchange for payment for the services he or she provides. A contract of employment may be express or implied, oral or in writing, but preferably in writing.

2013 saw the legislative and regulatory environment for charities significantly changed. 2014 looks like being a repeat, but in the opposite direction. The government has confirmed its intention to abolish the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission (ACNC) and to return to the common law definition of charity of the purposes of Commonwealth laws.