Appropriate Punishment

Contempt of court cases can often present some difficult issues with impossibility of compliance with court orders. It often occurs in environmental law that the defendants simply don’t have either the means to comply (eg they can’t remove thousands of...

Certorari & the pharmacist

Q: Why did the pharmacist get charged with 6 counts under the Poisons Act 1964 (WA)? A: Because he didn’t maintain a register for scheduled drugs and didn’t keep those drugs locked in a safe. You might think that fixing up your systems, admitting your...

Bona vacantia

I find legal history and unusual common law principles interesting. So all of my buttons were pressed when I came across  In The Matter Of Bradbury Industrial Services Pty Ltd (In Liq) [2021] VSC 828  which was an insolvency case where: There was an agreement between...

The Coathanger

It was the Sydney Harbour Bridge’s 90th birthday last weekend (on 19th March). I heard a few interesting interviews and decided to research some interesting bridge toll stories (not an oxymoron). Like all large infrastructure projects funding was a problem. You...

I don’t live there!

In 2019 Hammerschlag J ordered the winding up of a (badly in need of repairs and maintenance) company title apartment block at Point Piper. His Honour didn’t disguise his frustration with the parties in his judgment in O’Ryan v Golding [2019] NSWSC 1229. He...