Business Law Library & Tracker
Selected Business Law Cases
Short explainers for court decisions that change how Australian businesses handle contracts, staff, customers, IP and company duties.
Sources last reviewed 9 Nov 2026
Main law guides
297
Acts, regulations and codes worth reading first
Topics
22
Plain-English clusters
Published case explainers
519
Selected cases with a business lesson
Tracked updates
137
New, amended & reviewed
Plain-English explainers, not legal advice. Use the linked official source for section-level detail, and get advice for your situation.
Get legal helpRoberts-Smith v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd (Suppression Orders)
The practical message is straightforward. If your business needs confidentiality, protect it early and operationally. In this case, the Court accepted that the deed...
Rock Solid Mining Services administration appointment
If a company appoints an administrator, the board resolution and insolvency opinion need to be properly recorded. A messy appointment can create avoidable...
Rogers v McDonald's Australia
Rostering systems need to deal with real work, not just rostered shift boxes. If managers or staff are expected to open, close, prepare, reconcile, clean up or...
Roohizadegan v Technology One (No 7)
Fair Work litigation is not always risk-free on costs. A party that runs an over-wide case or rejects a serious settlement offer after the evidence has shifted can...
Rosemont Capital Investments v Weinberg
If money is advanced for a specific purpose, the documents and emails need to match the way the money is actually used. A director or founder who redirects...
SCL AUS v Kirkalocka Gold SPV
A deed of company arrangement can reshape contract rights that look future-facing. If your business relies on royalties, caveats or transfer restrictions,...
Scorpion and the Frog liquidation
If a company acts as trustee, liquidation can become messy fast. Trust deeds, appointment powers, asset records and family or beneficiary disputes should be clear...
Scott v Khouri, in the matter of Skycorp Construction Group Pty Ltd (in liq)
Directors should read this case as a warning about both solvency management and litigation response. If a company is under pressure, you need to monitor whether it...
Sech Finance Pty Limited v RAMS Financial Group Pty Limited (Initial Trial)
A broad termination or revocation power does not erase an express duty of good faith. On these facts, the unresolved gap identified by RAMS' own decision-maker and...
Secretary v AG Therapeutics
Marketing agencies can be exposed when therapeutic goods campaigns cross legal lines. Liquidation may pause ordinary civil proceedings, but it will not necessarily...
Secretary v Key Promotional Products
Businesses importing, supplying or advertising regulated health products must verify the exact ARTG status before sale. Saying a product is TGA approved when it is...
Shaw v The Official Trustee in Bankruptcy (No 2)
If your business is in Federal Court proceedings, treat the hearing as the main chance to deal with costs, especially if you need unusual wording in the final...
Sibley Investments Pty Ltd v Oldfields Advance Scaffold Pty Ltd
Shareholder default clauses can change control of a company, but the result turns on the exact drafting and the steps taken under it. Related-party loans, security...
Sillery Pty Ltd v CHA SMG Australia Holding Pty Ltd
If your company is handling a shareholder exit, do not treat transfer timing and valuation disclosure as separate issues. This case shows they are closely linked. A...
Slater v Ecosol
Shareholder oppression proceedings are not a second run at a company dispute that has already been fought somewhere else. If a business sale or board dispute is...
SMBC Leasing and Finance v Flexirent Capital
When finance documents say receivables, assets or customer contracts exist, those warranties are not decorative. If the underlying transaction is fake, the business...
SMBC Leasing and Finance, Inc. v Flexirent Capital Pty Ltd (Costs)
If your business is in a serious contract dispute, do not treat mitigation, settlement and costs as separate topics. They interact. This judgment shows that...
SMBC Leasing and Finance, Inc. v Flexirent Capital Pty Ltd (Lump Sum Costs)
If your business is in serious litigation, manage costs with recoverability in mind from the start. This case shows that the Court may prefer a practical lump sum...
South32 v Siemens discovery dispute
If your business uses related companies, overseas specialists, shared personnel or subcontractors to deliver a project, do not assume their records sit outside your...
Southernwood v Brambles
Investor updates and forecasts need to match the internal evidence. For listed companies and scale-ups preparing for public markets, management accounts, board...
Sozou, in the matter of Comm TC
Poor company records and unexplained related-party payments do not disappear when a company goes into liquidation. They can give liquidators more reason to seek...
Sozou, in the matter of SSG NSW
Businesses paid by a customer that later enters liquidation should not assume an unfair preference claim will arrive as a standalone case. Liquidators may try to...
Sphere Healthcare v Allianz
Insurance disclosure is an operating discipline, not admin. When a business changes what it makes, stores dangerous goods differently or changes brokers during a...
Sunflower Care Services Pty Ltd v Commissioner of the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission (Costs)
If your business is challenging a regulator, this case shows that the usual idea that the winner gets costs is only a starting point. The court focused on the...
Svehla v Svager
Consumer law disputes can turn on details that feel ordinary at the time: who supplied the goods, whether they were supplied in trade or commerce, what was said...
TEQSA v Chegg
Regulated digital services need product controls, not just terms of use. If a platform enables users to buy help that crosses into prohibited conduct, overseas...
The NOCO Company v Brown and Watson
Patent protection only works if the claims, priority story and best-method disclosure are disciplined. Product businesses should not assume broad later patent...
The Owners - Strata Plan No 87231 v 3A Composites
Product and building-safety disputes are rarely won by pointing at a product category in the abstract. If a business wants to rely on a product claim, warning claim...
The Owners - Strata Plan No 87231 v 3A Composites GmbH (No 11)
The practical takeaway is that this is a procedural judgment with real downstream value, not a new statement of substantive Australian Consumer Law doctrine. If...
The Property Mentors Australia v Touch for Health
Investment documents should never promise timing or returns unless the numbers have a defensible basis in the actual trust deed, project documents and commercial...
TJ & P Pty Ltd as trustee for the Post Family Trust v Agrinova Pty Ltd
If your business is discussing a rescue transaction, acquisition, refinance, settlement or debt clean-up, do not assume that avoiding a final signed contract...
Top Energy Holdings v Liu
Joint ventures, sale documents and shareholder funding records need a clean paper trail. If a document is created or relied on after the relationship breaks down,...
Toro Energy scheme meeting
A scheme of arrangement is not just deal paperwork. It is a disclosure, timetable and governance process. Founders and boards planning an exit should treat bidder...
Totino v Metro Trains Melbourne Pty Ltd
This decision is narrow. Metro succeeded because the Court accepted the stated reasons of the people responsible for the two challenged steps. Mr Wegert sent the...
Trafalgar Group v Boss Fire
A trade mark can survive even when it is used inside a larger composite brand, but only if the evidence shows real trade mark use. Businesses should keep product,...
True EV Distribution Pty Ltd v Shenzhen Xiaopeng Motors Supply Chain Management Co Ltd
The key lesson is to separate merits from interim relief. A court may accept that there is a serious question to be tried and still refuse an interlocutory...