Legal News - Go To Court Lawyers Legal Articles

Today (31 August) the High Court of Australia delivered its judgment in the Queensland Prosecution’s appeal of the murder conviction downgrade of Gerard Baden-Clay. In a decision which has been described as a win for common sense, we get to the bottom of the High Court’s unanimous decision to restore Baden-Clay’s murder conviction, and with…

Once again Go To Court Lawyers has secured an award, having recently been presented the esteemed Best Commercial & Criminal Law Network 2016 award by online business magazine APAC Insider. APAC Insider is an innovative online business news magazine featuring businesses across the Asia-Pacific region, spanning continents. Each year APAC Insider hosts the APAC Insider Awards…

Our community was shocked by the revelations that a group of teenagers from a Gold Coast High School were subject to mass suspension as a result of producing and distributing child pornography material. The Year 9 teenagers, both males and females, are believed to have been sexting naked photos of themselves with their peers.  The school’s…

After releasing its long-awaited review into the personalised transport industry, the Queensland government will make ride-booking (also referred to as ride-sharing) services legal throughout Queensland from 5 September 2016.  These changes will impact ride-sharing drivers (using a ride-booking service such as Uber), taxi and limousine services. This decision comes mere months after the government introduced…

Go To Court’s award-winning website has picked up another prize – a coveted Gold Stevie in the 2016 International Business Awards (IBA). The Stevie is the world’s premier business award, recognising positive contributions made by organisations and working professionals around the world. The 2016 IBA competition received more than 3,800 nominations across all categories, from…

Following an invitation from the NSW Young Lawyers, Go To Court could not resist pitting themselves against other lawyers and accountants in a trivia contest, all in the name of charity. Lawyers from our Go To Court Sydney and Liverpool offices recently participated in the NSW Young Lawyers and Chartered Accountants ANZ Cross Industry Charity…

Something strange is happening all over Australia. Almost everywhere you look, there are groups of people – quite clearly unknown to each other – wandering around the country while glued, even more than usual, to the screen of their mobile device. The cause of this phenomenon is the new game, Pokémon Go. For those few…

While falling short of the drink driving records we have reported in previous posts, and which involved open licence holders, a learner driver in Melbourne has possibly just achieved a record for inexperienced drivers. Around 2:00am on Friday, police noticed a car driving erratically along Doncaster Road through Donvale. It was travelling at only 20km/h.…

There are thousands of posts on the internet about weird laws in Australia, but how true are the claims? We researched the strangest ones we could find to see if there was any truth to them. Possessing 50kgs of potatoes It has been claimed that in Western Australia it is an offence to possess 50kgs of…

Another of Australia’s federal politicians has been caught driving while using a mobile phone. Just 2 days out from the election and in her highly visible campaign car, Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop was photographed committing the offence as she drove along a congested major road in Perth on Thursday. In Western Australia, you are…

Go To Court Lawyers has announced the winners of its inaugural Australian Legal Writing Challenge. The Challenge was open to all budding writers who held an Australian law degree or were in their final year of an Australian law degree. Entry was through submission of an article of between 800 and 1,500 words, and pertaining…

What does jurisdiction mean in the age of the internet? Holly Watson-Reeves* Ordinarily, if you break a law somewhere, you’ll go to court in the same region. But what happens if you break the law while you’re online? Because the internet exists all over the world at the same time, this is where things get…

The Untapped Wealth Inside Your iTunes Account Caroline Foley* When we buy products as a consumer, we have the security that if we change our minds, no longer want them, or want to upgrade to better things, there’s generally a market to on-sell them. Whether it be through Ebay, Amazon, or Gumtree, we have secondary…

International Child Abduction: Rights and Responsibilities Paula Pfingst* Occasionally we hear about children who have been abducted to or from Australia. Most notably, the “Italian sisters” case [1] and the Channel Nine team in Lebanon [2] have drawn wide public attention and debate. Many have opinions about what should be done in these types of circumstances and…

2016 has seen the longest election campaign ever held for a federal election in Australia. Though it pales into comparison with the rather painful United States process, by now many voters will be well and truly over the advertising, telephone polling and general electioneering. While the blackout on political advertising commenced at midnight, it is…

Go To Court Lawyers has been named winner of the 2016 Australian Legal Reference Website of the Year by Global Law Experts (GLE). GLE is the world’s premier online resource by which to locate specialist legal practitioners. Their business is to research and profile legal practitioners and law firms across the globe and across all…

Melbourne woman, Michelle Chaffey, 32, has achieved the dubious distinction of being possibly Australia’s worst driver. Dubbed the ‘demerit queen’ by Channel 9, Chaffey appeared in Ringwood Magistrates’ Court on 14 June 2016 after having accrued 157 driver demerit points and additional charges for having been driving while her licence was suspended. The offences related…

The ACT government has introduced a new offence aimed at improving road safety for all road users. Introduced by Part 1.10 of the Justice and Community Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2016, the new provision, s 28A in the Crimes Act 1900, makes it an offence to: deliberately throw an object at a vehicle deliberately drop…

On 1 June 2016, new legislation came into effect in Victoria which is designed to ‘protect the community further from sexual offenders including those serious sex offenders who may be, or may become, violent’. The Serious Sex Offenders (Detention and Supervision) Amendment (Community Safety) Act 2016 (‘the amending Act’) alters a number of existing pieces…