Nick has extensive trial experience in the Supreme and Federal Courts, particularly in commercial matters and in defamation. Nick is also experienced in applications for interim relief such as freezing orders and inspection orders.
Restraints of trade in employee contracts.
Drawing inferences of fact from proven facts.
Damages for loss of opportunity under the Australian Consumer Law.
Contract law and insolvency protections required by the Queensland Building and Construction Commission as a condition of building licences.
Validity of a speculative costs agreement. Circumstances in which a solicitor will be ordered to deliver an itemised bill to a client.
Permanent stay of proceeding as abuse of process.
Whether a claim in the Supreme Court of Queensland for breach of bailment occurring in the Cayman Islands should be stayed on the basis that Queensland was an inappropriate forum within the meaning of rule 127 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules.
Vexatious litigant orders.
Proper construction of UCPR 212 regarding abrogation of privilege in documents recording opinions of experts. Waiver of privilege imputed from conduct.
Defamation, including one of the largest overall damages awards ever achieved in Queensland.
The overlap between parliamentary privilege and defamation law.
Misleading and deceptive conduct with respect to the use of measuring instruments in the transport of bulk milk.
Misleading and deceptive conduct and unjustified claims under the Copyright Act. This case involved a detailed consideration of the principles as to whether conduct is in trade or commerce.
Maintenance of a caveat. Whether there was a serious question as to whether the purchaser had a right to specific performance.
Whether use in court of documents created for mediation in another proceeding constitutes an abuse of process.
Whether an application to set aside a bankruptcy notice filed in the Federal Court using its online system on the last day for filing but after the registry had closed was considered to be filed on that day or the next day. Interaction of provisions of the Bankruptcy Act 1966 and the Federal Court Rules 2011.
Inspection of documents held by liquidators in the context of ongoing litigation.
Defamation and the defence of qualified privilege.
Pleading as to special damages for defamation struck out as embarrassing.
Estoppel by conduct where the owner of real property had promised the property to the applicant in exchange for the applicant’s looking after him until he died.
Adverse possession.
The constitutionality of bestowing the power to conduct public examinations in respect of trading corporations on courts exercising federal jurisdiction.
Defamation and defamatory meaning.
Setting aside examination summonses under Part 5.9 of the Corporations Act 2001.
Leave to appeal on the same issue.
Interpretation of sugar supply contracts in central Queensland.
Leave to lodge a caveat after letting an earlier one lapse.
Whether a person seeking to rely on an unstamped document to establish a caveatable interest can do so if they offer an undertaking to pay the duty.
Contractual responsibility for the sinking of a yacht at a marina.
Formation of contracts and interpretation of them.
Leave to proceed after delay when the only question remaining is costs.