Rights and Responsibilities under the Strata Management Act

Posted on May 11, 2010 by Admin

Increasingly in Australia”s big cities people attending to live in Strata accommodation because population pressures are forcing more people to be accommodated on less land. In New South Wales for example a body of legislation has grown up which has set out the parameters of managing strata schemes. The Strata Scheme Management Act 1996 (NSW) sets out a simple system for managing Strata in New South Wales. There is a principal manager and their relationship with the owners Corporation which normally has a constitution and an executive committee who are elected by the unit holders in the strata scheme.

There are provisions of the legislation which ensure that the strata managing agent is accountable as certain defined functions and is appointed according to a process under the legislation. The body corporate can also write bylaws as they are progressively approved by meetings of the strata corporation. There are also some basic dispute management mechanisms contained within the act such as mediation and voting mechanisms at general meetings of the Strata Corporation. Strata corporations are also required to obtain building insurance under the valuations and maintain records and accounts using the strata roll, minutes of meetings, accounting records, records of notices and orders and a strata Corporation is also required to conduct an audit each year. In certain circumstances the tribunal created by the strata management legislation can make orders to caretakers or strata management bodies. this is the primary method of dispute resolution in relation to the management of strata schemes in New South Wales. The tribunal has very similar powers to a court and in some circumstances its decisions can be appealed. Ultimately the decisions of the tribunal can also be appealed to the district Court of New South Wales. If you have an issue with the unit holder in your Strata scheme, or the way that your strata management corporation is dealing with you in relation to the Strata Management Act there are certainly options the lawyer can give you by advising you on your rights in relation to these issues. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have an enquiry about strata management law in New South Wales.

Where can I get cheap conveyancing?

Posted on April 26, 2010October 19, 2023 by Admin

What are the price ranges in conveyancing?

Conveyancing is a relatively simple and straightforward legal process. Many providers of conveyancing services have set prices for particular services. As long as the service you require fits the mould of the product and most of conveyancing providers have, you should be able to get a standard price from at least one provider. For a completely straightforward residential conveyance with no caveats, one mortgage no complicated covenants, easements or other encumbrances on the property the price that you could expect to pay could be anywhere from $700-$1200 in professional fees plus disbursements in relation to purchase. Of, however, the property is the large commercial office space with several title deeds associated with it, several mortgages, several covenants, several easements, a history of development with or without council approval and there is a system of strata to consider you could expect to pay $5000 in professional fees to prepare the transfer of a property like this. Normally the vendors side fees are slightly higher than the purchaser fees because there is the preparation of contract in relation to the vendor. Although a purchaser may wish to negotiate in relation to a contract which could be an extremely complicated affair and cost several thousand dollars in professional fees as well.

What are the issues with different service providers?

Conveyancing services are like anything else in it you often get what you pay for. There are some differences between solicitors who conduct property transactions and between conveyancers. The most common one is that the solicitors have professional indemnity insurance. The levels of quality in conveyancing services differ between providers and it is not necessarily true that solicitors will always be better providers of conveyancing services. However, solicitors are professionally trained through five years of study at university and a professionally liable for the consequences of their actions and have professional indemnity insurance. For this reason you are protected if a solicitor makes a mistake where you are not if a conveyancer makes a mistake.

Intellectual Property – Apple calls in its lawyers for a big legal fight

Posted on April 20, 2010 by Admin

It appears as if Apple is preparing for a big legal fight to get a secret product back from a company that had somehow come into possession of the product. in a very simple looking letter, Bruce Sewell, Senior Vice President and general counsel of Apple Inc has written to Brian Lamb, the editorial director of GIZMODO simply stating that the company is in possession of a device that belongs to Apple and that they desire to come and pick the device up. it is apparently a prototype for a new product that Apple plans to launch which is why the letter was not specific as to the nature of the product. it appears that the phone could be very valuable in the hands of a competitor of Apple because it would tell their competitors what Apple was planning next.

Naturally, there are a number of products which are always subject to commercial confidence in corporate trade secrets can be incredibly valuable if they relate to a particular type of technology that the corporation uses to produce its products or if the technology is patented, there are copyright issues or in some cases even the image to a trademark might be something which remains a commercial secret before its release. In this case it appears as if Apple is preparing to fight a legal case if the phone is not returned to them simply on the grounds of theft.

However, obviously if the technology is advanced enough and original that it may one day be patented by the company and protected by intellectual property law. There are serious consequences for breaching intellectual property protections over patents, trademarks and copyright. Apple has a long track record of enforcing its intellectual property rights with a great degree of vigour. Intellectual property law is generally divided into three categories, the first is patents, the second is trade marks, the third is copyright.

What should I do if I have been sued? Tips for litigation.

Posted on April 19, 2010June 23, 2023 by Admin

Obviously being sued is not a pleasant experience for anyone. However, if you are in business or if you are in any long term relationship or if one of your relatives has died, you will most likely come into contact with litigation at some point in your life. The law and the court system exists to protect everyone’s rights but sometimes it doesn’t quite work out like that in practice. Especially in the context of the modern legal system, there is a great weakness in the system results in a power imbalance against those with no representation or legal resources. Also, many of the litigants in the modern legal system are not legally represented which is a great disadvantage in the process of any litigation because it means that the person fighting the claim must themselves become engaged in the legal process and attending to the details of drafting documents, serving them, appearing in court and conducting their own administration of the case.

How do I know if I have been sued?

Normally, when a legal action is commenced, a document called a statement of claim, a summons, or an originating process is served on you. If you have been given a document which appears to originate from court or has the format of a court document, this means that you have been served. The first document that you receive when you are being sued is normally supposed to disclose a cause of action and if it doesn’t disclose a cause of action then it can be struck out. You may need to look at filing a defence, making a request further and better particulars, or using some of the other responses that are allowed to you as a defendant by the civil litigation process. If you have been arrested and subsequently charged with a crime but then allowed to post bail bonds with the help of your bail bondsman agent, you will then receive a summons to attend court for a charge to be heard.

What do I do if I have been sued?

Obviously the first step is to get legal advice on whether or not you need to defend the claim, admit the claim, get more information about the claim, or give a request a further and better particulars. Having the assistance of a trained professional with experience in the type of matter that you are dealing with is of enormous value and can easily mean winning or losing the case. A professional may also assist you look for bail bonds services if your financial situation is too strained to pay your bail. You should also try to collect any documentation which you have relating to the claim that can be used as evidence for or against you. this will allow your lawyer to assess the strength of the claim and to give you an accurate picture of your position which in the long run is the cheapest way of resolving the dispute.

Need a fraud lawyer? An example from the SEC’s accusation against Goldman Sachs

Posted on April 18, 2010 by Admin

In almost all jurisdictions around the world there is the concept of fraud. In the US at the moment, the has been a landmark movement to charge employees of the Goldman Sachs organisation with fraud over representations that they made in relation to the sale of collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) which are the complex financial instruments that are largely cited as the where the genesis of the global financial crisis began. The individual who has been charged is Fabrice Tourre who is aged 31 years onle and is a registered representative of the bank. He was based in New York city, working on the project that is being questioned by the SEC in relation to this charge at the time. He has, however, moved on to London as Executive Director of Goldman Sachs International. He is charged with breaches under Section 17(a)(1), (2) and (3) of the Exchange Act [15 U.S.C. § 77q(a)(1), (2) & (3)] and Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act [15 U.S.C § 78j(b)]. The first set of charges relate to a largely procedural element of the law in relation to brokers but the second part relates to manipulative and deceptive devices which are used to obscure the true position of an investment and therefore induce the public to invest in products which are in reality much less likely to succeed as investments than a broker or dealer claims. It in particularly relates to the concept of a short sale which is a technique that was employed by Goldman Sachs staff to make enormous profits for the bank, usually at the expense of their clients.

In a sense, this is akin to fraud and is and the penalty that the regulator is seeking is to have an injunction preventing the individual from trading in relation to these matters in the future. The deceptive element of this act though is very similar in nature to the concept of fraud which is used in most jurisdictions. For instance, in New South Wales in Australia, fraud is largely framed as the crime of obtaining a benefit by deception. It is this element of deception which appears to be common to all allegations of fraud.

What is a marriage annulment?

Posted on April 17, 2010April 20, 2023 by Admin

Marriage annulment is a technical legal term describing a situation where although both parties believe that they were married they actually were not. It may have been that they were not married because of some reason such as the fact that they were underage at the time of the marriage or the one of the parties was married to someone else at the time or that the marriage was not conducted in a legal way. In common terminology marriage annulment is often confused with divorce. Divorce is illegal cessation of a marriage. The original marriage was in fact valid in the case of a divorce, however, in the case of a marriage annulment the presumption is that the marriage was never originally legal. Continue reading to learn about the legal process of annulment.

To discuss the difference between divorce and annulment, you need to seek help from a divorce attorney salt lake city to enlighten your mind and know the documents you need to secure during the ongoing process.

Probably the most common way in which the need for a marriage annulment comes about is when a person migrates from one country to another and one of the countries refuses to recognise the marriage that a couple had in a previous country. Although in Australia the terms of the Family Law Act 1975 are actually quite accommodating to relationships which formed overseas because the legislation means that a court has to recognise a marriage if it was legal in the country in which it originally formed. However, some foreign countries have certain requirements about recognising relationships which formed in other countries which are not as relaxed as Australia’s law is.

There can be any number of issues which can raise a marriage annulment question. If someone gets married and then leaves a spouse when a very young and never bothers to get a divorce and then wants to remarry later on without being able to contact their former spouse, this may be grounds a marriage annulment although this would certainly need to be verified based on the personal circumstances of the person. if you have a question about marriage annulment, where more than happy to help and lawyers are online almost all of the time to answer your questions.

What is the difference between a conveyancer and a conveyancing solicitor?

Posted on April 17, 2010February 21, 2024 by Admin

A conveyancer is someone who is licensed to do conveyancing, which is a very specific area of work related to property transactions. In New South Wales, for example, conveyancers can sign on behalf of their clients in a way that a solicitor can in many types of property transactions. A solicitor, on the other hand, is often more specialized in various legal matters, including conveyancing. There is substantial competition between conveyancers and solicitors in the field of property transactions. Some people debate whether it is better to use a conveyancer or a solicitor for their property transactions.

Solicitors, just like these manchester solicitors, have certain advantages, primarily because they are university-trained professionals who have completed a law degree. They also have appropriate professional indemnity insurance, as required under the legal profession act. This insurance ensures that if something goes wrong, their client is able to sue someone other than the solicitor themselves for the damage caused.

However, there are different types of conveyancing fees and a conveyancer may be advantageous because they generally charge less fees than a solicitor. There may also be less prone to pick on small points which could extend the conveyance beyond its natural life. Go for sargeants conveyancing if you’re looking for a great value conveyancer in Melbourne. Sometimes lawyers have been accused of doing this to inflate the amount of time that they need to spend a matter and therefore be able to charge more fees. in general conveyances work of the fixed fee basis although this is not true in every case. It is now also common for solicitors to work of fixed fee basis because of the competition from the conveyancing market.

If you have a query about conveyancing, I would be more than happy to hear from you. We perform commencing work on a regular basis, and you can contact wire conveyancing solicitors in order to sell your house or to purchase one in order to have a complete conveyancing. We also do conveyances in relation to commercial property, industrial property and any other type of property that is going through a transaction from buyer to seller. We also do the maintenance of these properties to ensure that these properties are all in great condition. Furthermore, if you’re a property owner in Florida and your house’s or current space’s fire alarm system and/or water-based fire protection system such as a sprinkler system is not operational, you are required by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and Florida Statute to implement a fire watch should that system become impaired. You may seek expert help from professional Fire Watch Services in Key Biscayne Village.

Sydney Lawyer and Judge comments on Divorce, Immigration and Australian Diversity

Posted on April 16, 2010 by Admin

Justice Spiegelman, a highly recognised lawyer in Sydney and now the Chief Justice of New South Wales recently commented that it the new cultural customs related to the treatment of migrant women and in particular attitudes to violence against women in abusive relationships will need to be a major priority for the legal system going forward. Justice Spiegelman beleives that the legal system is at present ill equiped to deal effectively with what he believes will be a growing problem in the future of violence against women perpetrated because of differences between western ideals and the realities of cultures which orginate in the Middle East and the South East Asia.

Justice Spiegelman addressed a gathering at the University of New South Wales where he voiced his concerns about the way that the legal system is prepared to deal with this issue. It is recognised that there has been a tension between customary aboriginal law and the british common law system ever since the rule of law was adopted into Australian law. This is what probably the most important high court case of the 1980s was about – terra nullius and claim that the British rule of law was founded on a fiction. Now it appears that the state’s leading judge is concerned that there might be a cultural challenge to the system of Justice from the large migrant populations in the major cities in Australia. In particular, he was concerned about legal dilemmas including honour crimes and forced marriages which emerge and the way that this could highlight the inconsistency between upholding universal values which abhor these principles, but being tolerant of the cultures of others who chose to practices them. There is the not the legislation in Australia to help prevent these types of crimes as there is in other countries. In his speech, Justice Spiegelman said the following:

”Human rights norms are, to a substantial degree, based on assumptions about individual autonomy, the full implications of which are not universally accepted … There is a fundamental conflict between a human rights approach to these matters, on the one hand, and the tolerance of cultural traditions, based on an assumption of an equality between cultures, on the other hand … There is no way of avoiding the dilemma arising from this conflict of values.”

It is certainly true that the these conflicts exist in the project of international human rights law and that this has potential to be expressed at the everyday level in Australia given the vast diversity of our culture. It will be interesting to see how the predictions of this highly respected lawyer and judge relate to the future of our legal system in particular in relation to the operation of the law in relation to divorce and immirgation.

Leading criminal lawyer in Sydney retires

Posted on April 15, 2010 by Admin

Nicholas Cowdroy, the Director of Public Prosecutions in New South Wales, announced today that he is to step down from his present position and retire at the age of 65. The Director of Public Prosecutions has been in the job for over a decade and retires with a distinguished career behind him having established respect from all quarters of the legal community. Although it cannot be said that at times his decisions were not controversial, many commented on the news of his resignation by recognising that it is basically impossible to keep everyone happy in the role that he performs. Mr Cowdroy rose to the ranks of being a senior council before taking on the position of Director of Public Prosecutions. As a young man he was always recognised as having a sharp mind and served his profession with the greatest distinction which eventually led to his appointment as the director of public prosecutions.

It is rumoured that the current attorney general desires to take over the position, however it can only be speculation at the moment as to who will take on the role of Director of Public Prosecutions. Presumably someone with extensive prosecutorial experience will be necessary. However balancing the rights of victims and defendants in criminal trials is never easy. Although it is not necessarily the role of the prosecutor to ensure that this balance occurs there is a large amount of discretion in the process of prosecution which leads to the conclusion that the prosecutor has a very large role in deciding the fate of the matter which they prosecute. Needless to say, many of the city’s criminal elements will most likely breathe a sigh of relief at the sight of the resignation of the state’s top prosecutor and the director of public prosecutions will leave the office with an enormous amount of experience that he brought to bear on his daily tasks.

Lawyers Comment on Chinese Law and Commerce

Posted on April 3, 2010 by Admin

The conviction of Stern Hu and his sentence has seen a new watershed in the development of the law in China in relation to commerce and the secrets of the Chinese State. Hu was involved in negotiations over the price of iron ore with the Chinese Steel Industry including Shougang Steel, or Capital Steel, which is the biggest steel manufacturer in Beijing. This company and some of the other large chinese steel manufactures were seeking a better deal from companies such as BHP Billiton and Vale as well as Rio. Hu had been told by the representatives of the company that they were not prepared to accept the Japanese benchmark price from Nippon Steel. Later on, the chinese steel company managed to secure the deal for a great price from Rio.

A few years later down the track, we find that, Hu is sentenced to 10 years in jail for bribery and for stealing trade secrets. The others involved in the matter were given sentences varying from 7 to 14 years. THe judgments include very detailed and clear accounts of the malfeasance invovled. However, in Hu’s case, there is not as much specifically said about it. Because in China many of the largest companies are state owned enterprises, the commercial secrets of these companies are often considered state secrets as well which is why the charges became much more serious. However, it appears that these individuals are certainly not the first and very unlikely to be the last to be involved in graft and corruption in the chinese steel industry as it is a ubiquitous trait of the way the industry works in China. “It’s not clear where the line is between legitimate information-gathering and criminal commercial-secret stealing,” said two international experts on Chinese law, Jerome Cohn and Yu-Jie Chen of New York University.

Hu’s lawyer stated that the current evidence is not sufficeinet to show that Hu actaully stole information which caused damage to the state to the tune of 1 billion yuan as is alleged. In China, the judgments of courts are only published at the discretion of the court and it is not compulsory as it is in the Western Systems. From the reasoning of the courts which have been published, it appears that the authorities in China are likely to be far more aggressive in their regulation of the steel industry. One of the activities complained of is the collection of information about chinese steel production by Rio Tinto’s offices in Singapore. Also, part of the factor which indicated that the whole process is subject to broader political interference was the fact that the incarceration of the Rio Four occured by Rio refused to sign up to a $US19.5 billion deal with Chinalco which was reported very negatively by all of the state owned media and the state owned company itself in China. This case highlights some of the challenges of doing business in China because of the legal and political environment there.