Category: Litigation
  • Litigation, Navrinder Sathar

Right of Publicity

At present, there is no statute law in Australia that provides a right of publicity. However, that doesn’t mean one can invariably use the likeness or image of another without permission or compensation.
  • Brendan Nyst, Defamation, Litigation

Heroes and Villains

Some years ago I attended a breakfast at the Sheraton Hotel on the Gold Coast, at which the then highly-respected - and now much-maligned - Victoria Cross recipient, Ben Roberts-Smith, was the featured guest speaker. In his riveting address, Mr Roberts-Smith enthralled his audience with a detailed account of his service with the Australian Defence Force in Afghanistan, including the extraordinary events that saw him bestowed Australia’s highest award for valour and devotion to duty in the theatre of war. As anyone who has heard the war hero’s harrowing tale of combat and courage under fire could tell you, it’s a hell of a yarn. And boy, did he tell it well.
  • Brendan Nyst, Business, Commercial Law, Litigation

Covid Rental Relief

Perhaps not surprisingly, I've been deluged recently with enquiries from small business operators and commercial space landlords about rental relief in the time of COVID-19. For those affected, here's a quick snapshot of what's on offer.
  • Dispute Resolution, Litigation, Navrinder Sathar, Opinion, Politics

People Power

For the past couple of months, I have been receiving messages and calls from concerned relatives and friends back home in Malaysia wanting to know whether I have been affected by the recent bushfires. Thankfully, like most Gold Coasters, I wasn’t physically confronted by the crisis,  but of course we have all been touched by the devastating news of loss and destruction suffered by so many around us. It is awful to think the fires have claimed lives, destroyed homes, impacted at least a billion animals, and laid to waste more than 25 million acres of land.
  • Brendan Nyst, Commercial Law, Litigation

The Shame Game

China has yet again cemented its reputation as the great 21st-century innovator by coming up with a novel new way of convincing its citizens to honour their legal and community responsibilities. In the interests of encouraging wayward debtors to pay their dues, Chinese Authorities have devised a none-too-subtle system of naming and shaming them by projecting their names and faces onto movie screens across the country, including recently during the previews to the worldwide smash hit movie Avengers: Endgame.
  • Litigation

Justice Denied

Between January 2013 and December 2017, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard evidence revealing that for generations many of our educational and other institutions presided over the systemic abuse of countless defenceless children. Tragically, most of those children, racked with shame, guilt and self-doubt, kept that abuse hidden from sight in deep, dark and destructive secrecy for decades. Some never whispered a word.
  • Criminal Law, Litigation, Politics

Old School Injustice

A generation ago, corporal punishment at school was commonplace. Canings and strappings that would now turn school mums like me apoplectic were once considered a routine and acceptable means of enforcing discipline and taming the unruly child.
  • Brendan Nyst, Dispute Resolution, Litigation, Politics

Politics, Sex and Religion

It’s often said one should never discuss politics, sex or religion at a dinner party. The latest news out of the Wonderful World of the Public Service certainly seems to attest to the wisdom of that simple sentiment.
  • Alex Somers, Criminal Law, International, Litigation

Trial By Fyre

A brand new Netflix documentary doing the rounds right now has sparked a maelstrom of controversy around the ethical and legal culpability of “social media influencers” in advertising and promoting business brands for profit. The disaster-doco “FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened” tells the sorry story of the exploits of Billy McFarland, the mastermind behind the failed 2017 “luxury music festival” FYRE.
  • Brendan Nyst, Dispute Resolution, Litigation

Big Bucks -v- The Dreaded Self-Litigant

Those more cynical than I have been sometimes known to quip that "Justice favours the well-heeled". It is undoubtedly true. Whilst money may not buy happiness, it can certainly deliver lots of lawyering, and in the cutthroat world of commercial litigation, he with the deepest pockets is often very likely to be at a distinct advantage. Of course, in the modern world, that's true of any competitive environment, from sport to industry to military conflict. The bigger the bucks, the bigger the bang.
  • Family Law, Litigation

Sperm and Eggs

The Six Degrees of Separation being what they are, you almost certainly know someone, or someone who knows someone, who’s currently undergoing fertility treatment. It may or may not come as a surprise to you, but thousands of couples undergo fertility treatment in Australia every year. The latest data on Assisted Reproductive Technology in Australia and New Zealand shows 77,721 treatment cycles were reported in 2015. Of those, 92% were from Australian clinics. That means a whole lot of laboratory fertilisation procedures are happening out there. But the question is: who owns all those sperm and eggs?
  • Chris Nyst, Litigation, Opinion

Rat Racers

Remember the old joke about lawyers and rats? In case you don't, here's how it goes: “The National Institute of Health announced this week it would start using lawyers instead of rats to conduct its laboratory experiments. The American Bar Association has objected, but the NIH says there are three good reasons why lawyers are better than rats for laboratory work. Firstly, there's a lot more of them. Secondly, laboratory staff don't become so emotionally attached to them, and thirdly, there are some things even a rat won't do for reward."