Dispute Resolution

  • New movie highlights the St Kilda Triangle dispute

    Posted by Anton Dunhill

    After years of battling on the streets and in the Victorian Civil & Administrative Tribunal, our client unChain St Kilda successfully achieved its goal and the goal of many St Kilda residents in preventing the proposed redevelopment of the St Kilda Triangle.

    A movie now showing at the Melbourne International Film Festival tracks the progess of this dispute from the initial opposition at Council meetings to many complex legal disputes, including freedom of information applications, administrative law review and costs disputes.

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  • Regional Rail Link : Compulsory Property Acquisitions

    Posted by Andrew Blogg

    The Department of Transport is currently initiating a project known as the Regional Rail Link.  The project is a new rail line separating regional and metropolitan trains.  In particular, it gives Geelong, Bendigo, and Ballarat trains their own tracks from Sunshine to Southern Cross Station.  The Department has advised that it will oversee the building of up to 50 kilometres of new rail track.  

    During the construction process, some properties will need to be compulsorily acquired.

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  • Compulsory Acquisition General Advice

    Posted by Andrew Blogg

    Aitken Partners have acted for many land owners whose properties have been acquired as a result of various infrastructure projects. We act exclusively for land owners and the members of our Compulsory Acquisition team are familiar with the Land Acquisition and Compensation Act (“the Act”) under which compulsory acquisitions proceed. 

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  • Yan Yean Road : Property Acquisition

    Posted by Andrew Blogg

    VicRoads is currently undertaking a planning study for the possible duplication of Yan Yean Road between Diamond Creek Road and Kurrak Road, Plenty to cater for the substantial growth in the area.

    During the construction process, some properties will need to be compulsorily acquired.

    Please refer to our compulsory acquisition general advice.

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  • Private Investigators a part of the process

    Posted by Andrew Blogg

    Media reports today indicate that a private investigator has been hired to perform surveillance and background checks on Kristy Fraser-Kirk who has launched law suit against David Jones and its former CEO Mark McInnes.

    While to many this seems an extreme step it is not an uncommon part of the legal process, especially when the law suit is in the region of the $37m being sought.

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  • Protection for Home Owners for Domestic Building Works

    Posted by Andrew Blogg

    With many of us undertaking renovation works on our properties, or even purchasing a home where such work has already been done, it is important for home owners to be aware that they do have some protection for domestic building works undertaken on their homes, whether or not they engaged the builder or contractor themselves and regardless of how the builder or contractor was engaged, which, as we know, can often be somewhat informal and not generally governed by a formal contract.

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  • Kookaburra gets 5% of Down Under

    Posted by Sandra McColl

    In February 2010, Justice Jacobs of the Federal Court held that the quotation of two out of four bars of the round ‘Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree’ in Men at Work’s song Down Under constituted the copying of a ‘substantial portion’ of Kookaburra and therefore an infringement of the copyright of its owner, Larrikin Music Publishing Pty Ltd: Larrikin Music Publishing Pty Ltd v EMI Songs Australia Pty Ltd (No 2) [2010] FCA 29.

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  • Protection for Investors

    Posted by Andrew Blogg

    In times of a rising share market and at the end of the financial year it is useful to be reminded of the protection afforded to investors by various provisions of the Corporations Act, in particular, Chapter 7 of the Corporations Act.

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  • Incorporated Associations access to information about members

    Posted by Sandra McColl

    The Associations Incorporation Act 1981 (Vic) governs the incorporation of not-for-profit clubs and societies. Every association incorporated under that Act must have Rules, and the Act provides a list of matters for which rules must cover.  The Act also provides that an association or club may simply adopt the Model Rules prescribed in the regulations.

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  • Ignorance may not be bliss

    Posted by Anton Dunhill

    A recent case in which we acted for a waste management company demonstrated that even when you think you are doing the right thing, that may not be the case.

    The waste management company had processes in place where it reported to the Council when trucks entered a waste site with overweight loads. Our client was at that stage unaware that there was a secondary requirement – VicRoads were to be notified when this occurred pursuant to the Road Safety Act – an oversight which gave rise to potential fines of around $1.6m.

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