Szabo & Associates News & Updates

When a person makes a Will, or changes an existing one, they have to understand what they are doing for it to be valid. This is the essence of testamentary capacity. For a century and a half, the benchmark test for having the mental capacity to make a valid Will, in common law jurisdictions such as NSW, has been based on the nineteenth-century English case Banks v Goodfellow (1870). Banks concerned an individual who suffered delusions but whose Will was held to be valid because the delusions did not interfere with his ability to comprehend what he was doing when he made his Will.

The National Energy Retail Law (NERL) regulates the sale of gas and electricity, though with variations in different States. A landlord, on-selling power to tenants, have to hold either an authorisation or an exemption under the NERL. These are not necessarily automatic.

Construction disputes often revolve around delays. Delay cases are complex and expert opinion is often sought to provide evidence. But if the expert evidence from each party is contradictory, where is the Court to turn?

The NSW Land and Environment Court has wide-ranging jurisdiction to deal with a variety of disputes involving various diverse parties. One of the areas that give rise to many civil enforcement cases is a failure to obtain necessary planning permission for new buildings as illustrated recently in Sutherland Shire Council v Perdikaris (2019) NSWLEC 149.

Sometimes development application proceedings in the Land and Environment Court will need the support of expert witness evidence. Their evidence, as their Code of Conduct states, is “to assist the court impartially on matters relevant to the area of expertise of the witness”.  However, a recent case illustrates how the very preparation of an application can undermine it by compromising the supporting expert’s credibility.