In The Media

Property and Commercial Law Senior Associate Mieke Elzer appeared on AusBiz’s The Advisory segment to discuss the legal risks that can arise when adult children live with their parents, and how families can protect their property and retirement plans.

With rising rents, property prices and deposit hurdles, more adult children are living at home for longer. Mieke explained that these arrangements can work well, but they can become problematic when expectations around timing, finances and household responsibilities are not agreed at the outset. She also outlined the difference between a licence and a tenancy, which affects a parent’s rights if the arrangement needs to end.

“Where an adult child is making any kind of significant contribution to a mortgage or improvements to the property, that can definitely result in some kind of equitable interest recognisable at law,” Mieke said.

Mieke also outlined practical steps parents can take and stressed the importance of seeking independent legal advice before entering into an arrangement.

“Set those expectations early. Write them down wherever you can,” she advised.

Watch the full interview here.

Wills and Estates Senior Associate Xara Coassin spoke with Lawyers Weekly about the errors that can make a binding death benefit nomination ineffective, and what lawyers should check before a client signs.

Xara outlined the common mistakes, including not having a valid nomination in place, not following the fund’s rules on witnessing or non-lapsing nominations, and nominating a person who is not eligible to receive superannuation.

“There is a way to ensure that it does go to who you want, and that is by putting in place a valid binding death benefit nomination,” Xara said.

She also discussed the differences between paying super directly to a beneficiary and directing it to the estate.

Read the full article here.

The interview was also cross-published in Accountants Daily.

Compensation Law Special Counsel Claire Gibbs spoke with HR Leader about the steps Australian organisations are now expected to take to prevent workplace harassment before it occurs.

“A lot of people naively believe that sexual harassment is a thing of the past because we’ve got modern workplaces with policies and training in place, but the data tells us something really different; around one in three Australian workers have experienced workplace sexual harassment,” Claire said.

Claire also outlined the legal avenues available to employees facing harassment, noting that protections exist under federal and state discrimination laws, the Fair Work regime, and workplace health and safety legislation.

Read the full article here.

Commercial Litigation Partner Charles Lethbridge was interviewed by 7News Sydney after major residential developer Bathla Group entered voluntary administration with a pipeline of projects still to be completed.

Charles said that affected homebuyers should check their contracts closely to “work out if they’re entitled to receive their deposit back if they want to terminate the contract” and “if they’re able to terminate the contract.”

Charles’s team regularly sees people who have not received proper legal advice and enter into off the plan contracts without understanding the risks.

He says the sunset clauses incorporated into off the plan contracts are designed to protect builders and developers when things go wrong, for example during construction. And so those affected should speak to a lawyer about their options.

Watch the news clip here.

Legal Practice Director Jeff Garrett fronted a run of ABC interviews this week on the fallout from Telstra’s recent national network outage.

In an interview with ABC News, he discussed Attwood Marshall Lawyers’ investigation into a potential class action, noting that affected customers will need to demonstrate direct financial loss, and outlined the escalation process available through the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO).

Jeff also separately joined presenter Fairlie Hamilton on ABC Illawarra Drive and Nadia Mitsopoulos on ABC WA Mornings, pointing listeners to Telstra’s direct complaints process and the TIO as a practical early step for compensation of up to $100,000, and touching on why establishing negligence is central to any larger legal action against Telstra.

To read the ABC News article, click here. To listen to the ABC Illawarra interview, click here. To listen to the ABC WA interview, click here.

Legal Practice Director Jeff Garrett joined 4BC Mornings to unpack the fallout from Telstra’s national outage, focusing on what compensation options are available to frustrated customers and businesses.

Jeff explained that while individuals and businesses can pursue a claim if they can demonstrate financial loss, proving that loss is often very difficult, particularly for commuters, tradespeople, and others whose time and money could be affected in less obvious ways.

He pointed listeners to the Telecommunications Ombudsman as the most practical avenue, noting it can handle disputes up to $100,000, while acknowledging that establishing Telstra’s fault is central to any claim.

To listen to the full interview, click here.

A five-hour Telstra outage disrupted mobile services for potentially millions of Australians this week, affecting triple-zero calls and public transport systems in NSW and Victoria.

Attwood Marshall Lawyers’ Legal Practice Director, Jeff Garrett, shared his expertise in the Daily Telegraph on the legal consequences for Telstra and the compensation options that may be available to affected customers and businesses.

Jeff told business reporter Sarah Perillo that the outage has the right ingredients to spark a significant claim, though he cautioned that proving loss won’t be straightforward for every customer.

“You have to prove financial loss is directly related to the breach or the outage. Sometimes you don’t know what that looks like until they do some sort of investigation into the outage and what caused it,” he said.

He also spoke about how individuals and small businesses could lodge a claim with the Telecommunications Ombudsman, which can handle disputes up to $100,000.

To read the article, click here

Middle managers, particularly women, are often left to absorb psychological harm that workplace systems fail to recognise as a safety issue rather than a personal failing.

Compensation Law Special Counsel, Claire Gibbs, writes in Women’s Agenda about the pressures facing women in leadership roles, including “bullying up,” the isolation of managing conflict without authority to address its cause, and the gap between wellbeing initiatives and genuine psychosocial safety.

“Women should not be required to carry harm, stay silent or endure psychological injury to prove they are cut out for leadership,” she writes.

Read the full piece here.