Posts by Websters Lawyers
DOES A TERMINATION PAYMENT MEAN I DON’T GET WORKERS COMPENSATION?
What happens when a person who is injured at work receives a termination payment? Does that mean that they are not entitled to Workers Compensation payments for lost income because they’ve already been paid? This question arose when a Council employee who was employed on a fixed term contract was terminated by the employer four…
Read MoreA JOKE EMAIL THAT COST $200,000
A man who sent an email from his co-worker’s login saying, ‘Hello people, just a note to say that i am a homosexual and i am looking for like minded people to share time with” will have to pay over $200,000.00 in damages. The plaintiff who was employed by the Department for Correctional Services had…
Read MoreCAN YOU RELY ON A PHOTOCOPY OF A WILL? THE DANGERS OF A WILL KIT
Many people go to a lot of trouble to prepare their legal will, but then don’t think about the difficulty that might arise in trying to locate the document after their death. In a recent case the Supreme Court had to consider an apparent photocopy of the will when the original couldn’t be located. The…
Read MoreWHAT CONSTITUTES POSSESSION OF A FIREARM?
A number of criminal offences involve possession of an item or substance. Recently the District Court considered the circumstances in which it can be said that a person is in possession of a firearm and the way in which the law has created a broader meaning of that term. The case involved charges under the…
Read MoreWHEN DOES ‘REASONABLE CHASTISEMENT’ BECOME ‘ASSAULT’?
A father has been found guilty of assault of his 13 year old son who was refusing to clean his bedroom and ‘testing the limits of his parents’ patience’ after he grabbed the boy by the ear to lead him into the room and gave him a ‘backhander’ to the shoulder when the boy called…
Read MoreWHAT DOES ‘WITHOUT CONVICTION’ MEAN FOR MY EMPLOYMENT?
When imposing penalty upon a guilty plea or finding of guilt after trial, a Court has the discretion under certain circumstances to refrain from recording a conviction under the Criminal Law Sentencing Act 1988.* In South Australia a ‘no conviction’ or ‘without conviction’ ruling automatically becomes a ‘Spent Conviction’ under section 4 of the Spent…
Read MoreARE STEP-CHILDREN “MY CHILDREN”? RECTIFYING A WILL.
Did you know that an application can be made to the Supreme Court to ‘rectify’ a will if it does not accurately reflect the ‘testamentary intentions’ of the deceased person? The purpose is to effectively amend the wording of the will so as to give proper expression to the intentions of the deceased. An application…
Read MoreCOURT FINDS UNLAWFUL SEARCH BY POLICE
A recent judgment of the District Court concerned a successful application by the accused to exclude the evidence of a police search of a car in which she had been located on the basis that the Court concluded that it was an unlawful search. In August 2012 police searched a car that had apparently been…
Read MoreLICENCE DISQUALIFIED FOR UNPAID FINES
Did you know that you can have your licence disqualified because of a failure to pay fines – even parking fees – on time? Section 70M of the Criminal Law (Sentencing) Act, enables disqualification of a debtor’s driver’s licence if the driver has outstanding fines and has not made arrangements to pay for them. It…
Read More