COVID-19 and Leveraged Businesses

This article examines the implications of the novel coronavirus for Australian businesses at particular risk due to high debt, and the free movement of consumers and goods. Steps can be taken to minimise damage to your business, including seeking leniency from creditors with a view to avoiding voluntary administration or liquidation.

Coronavirus and Commercial Contracts

The novel coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause mass disruption across the globe, with the extent of the damage yet to be understood. It has led to businesses examining their business models, cutting expenses and re-negotiating contractual relationships. It is hoped that, in this time, people and entities try to work together for general survival, rather than focussing on black letter law. However it is important to know how your contracts work, and your potential options. It is also important to prepare, commercially and legally, for the next black swan event.

Coronavirus: Legal Implications for Business

“May you live in interesting times”.  The well-known apocryphal expression could hardly be more apt to describe the start of the 2020s.  The implications for business in the midst of this overwhelming uncertainty are numerous.  This article, whilst not constituting legal advice, seeks to address how to mitigate risk in the short term from a legal standpoint.

Restraints of Trade

A contract can be in restraint of trade if one party (“the covenantor”) agrees with another party (“the covenantee”) to restrict the covenantor’s liberty in the future to carry on trade with other persons not party to the contract.

Municipal Mysteries of Town Planning Law

The concept of the planned use of land was first given statutory recognition in the British Housing and Town Planning Act of 1909. Up until then a landowner had complete freedom to develop their land however they pleased, subject only to compliance with health and building acts and bylaws and the common law of nuisance.