Sydney Lawyers plan Class Action over Wrongful Arrests

Posted on December 28, 2010August 1, 2023 by Admin

The state government is facing a very large compensation bill due to a computer glitch which led to the arrest and detention of a number of people, including minors. It is understood that the arrests were the result of systemic problem with the police database system which tended to cast suspicion over people by falsely attributing information to them indicating prior criminal activity. Last year, the NSW Police paid more than $2.7 million to 22 people, including five juveniles, after officers made unlawful arrests wrongly alleging bail condition breaches and having the right to hire a bail bondsman. Thankfully, these juveniles along with their families were able to work with an experienced bail bondsman like this Payment Plans Bail Bonds Service to cover these costs without too severe an effect on their financials and livelihood. The police computer system did not contain accurate information, the government has revealed in parliamentary papers.

An issue is that there seems to be a pattern of bureaucratic buck passing where the police blame the Attorney General’s Department and this department blames the police. It creates a ridiculous waste of public time and money and perpetuates what is in fact a grave injustice which measured against international human rights standards. The pattern which has occurred in the cases heard before the courts so far is that when the person accused is brought to court, the court has more accurate records than the police and the police are forced to apologize, which is embarrassing and expensive in terms of compensation and lost police time.

The 22 matters already settled or resulting in court orders for compensation averaged a payout of $124,000 each. They involved some related claims of false imprisonment, assault and malicious prosecution, the government told the Greens MP David Shoebridge in a budget estimates meeting. There have been more payouts of as much as $200,000 this financial year. Its legal team has found 10 more people aged 13 to 19 alleging wrongful arrest who may join the litigation.

Lawyers Circling Around Banks Over Storm Financial

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Admin

The Commonwealth Bank, Macquarie Bank and Bank of Queensland are now exposed to massive lawsuits after the corporate regulator announced it would take court action for compensation on behalf of Storm Financial investors today. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission also announced it would pursue a civil case against Storm Financial’s founders, Emmanuel and Julie Cassimatis. On top of the compensation actions against the banks, the regulator singled out Macquarie Bank and the owners of a Bank of Queensland franchise for additional actions. The corporate regulator said in seeking compensation from the three banks it would mount a court case alleging the banks participated with Storm Financial in offering investors an unregistered managed investment scheme.

If it proves its case, it will seek from the courts enough compensation to return investors to their original position as if they had never invested through Storm Financial. Given Storm Financial collapsed with reported losses of $3 billion – which included massive margin loans – compensation for investors’ original investments could easily top $1 billion. The regulator said it would not lay the cases immediately, but offered the three banks a maximum of three weeks to arrive at a negotiated compensation settlement. In a statement, ASIC chairman Tony D’Aloisio said a commercial settlement remained the preferable outcome if it could be achieved. “Given the age and financial means of many investors involved in the Storm Model, a speedy commercial resolution should be what ASIC and all involved should continue to seek to achieve,” he said. Mr and Mrs Cassimatis will face a case alleging they did not act with the proper degree of care and diligence as directors of Storm Financial. In the case, ASIC will seek fines and orders that they be banned from providing financial services.

The case represents a major milestone after almost two years of investigations into the collapse of the Townsville-based financial planner, which specialised in offering “double leverage” to many elderly and unsophisticated investors. “Double leverage” involved investors taking out a loan against their home, then using that as the basis for a second margin loan, which was invested into the stock market. More than 14,000 investors were hit when Storm Financial collapsed in 2008.

Defamation, facebook and legal implications of online social networking

Posted on May 16, 2010 by Admin

The world of online social networking opens up enormous opportunities but also some potential threats. As with any social situation there will be pleasant people who you will come accross and others who are no so pleasant, or who are even down right dangerous. Protecting our children online has become a big priority for many parents and even protecting our own identities without becoming an internet hermit. It is now a question which is regularly raised in legal circles as the to the limits and extent to which the law applies in the online social networking space. In many quarters, the consensus appears to be that on-line media is no different from a phone call, a mobile phone text message, a radio signal or a television broadcast in that the senders of such messages must be sensitive to how these messages will be viewed and interpreted by audiences who are sometimes not intending to view material or are naive to the extent as which dangerous material can be damaging. Then there is also the issue of how to deal with communication which is intentional spiteful and designed to cause harm either directly or through the mechanism of reputation.

It is now a regular occurrence that people are caught in compromising situations and then this information is posted on a social networking site like facebook or twitter or myspace. Getting posted on these site when you are not consenting is potentially very harmful to your reputation. What if your employer saw these photos or your close friends or family? It can be a very difficult situation to be in. There are some protections which the law offers to people to prevent deliberate and malicious harm to the reputation of another. This is known as the law of defamation which generally prevents this type of publication from occurring. We have defamation specialists available who can look into a defamation issue with you and indentify if you may have a claim of defamation available to you if someone has done some serious damage to your reputation.