Lawyers weekly has just reported that Maurice Blackburn has made a representative complaint against  arising out of a data breach in October 2019. It is the first representative complaint made under the Privacy Act 1988.  It seems 2020 is proving to be an active year for use of the Privacy Act with the Commissioner commencing civil penalty proceedings, for the first time, and now this representative complaint.

Maurie Blackburn describes the complaint as Read the rest of this entry »

On 23 April 2020 in  Australian Information Commission v Facebook Inc the Australian Information Commissioner successfully obtained interim suppression and non publication orders and orders to serve outside Australia and substituted service against Facebook Inc.

This is the first of what is likely Read the rest of this entry »

The Guardian reports on another email bungle resulting in a significant privacy breach, this time by the Australian Traffic Network.   In an email an operator at the Australian Traffic Network sent out a document containing personal information of more than a 100 current and former staff as part of an internal email to existing staff.  An email was originally sent on Monday to staff asking about eligibility for the jobkeeper payment.  A follow up the next day was the data breach as it contained a table of staff names with their addresses and dates of birth.  It provoked concern within the organisation, little wonder given Read the rest of this entry »

The latest decision at the superior court level in Victoria dealing with restraint application is Santin v Sfameni [2020] VSC 26.  That judgement considers a case in which I appeared for the, unsuccessful, applicant, Pinnacle Living Pty Ltd v Elusive Image Pty Ltd [2006] VSC 202. 

FACTS

The dramatis personae are:

• Emilio Santin (“Emilio”), who died on 2 March 2017 [1].
• Rosanna Sfameni (“Rosanna”), Emilio’s daughter and executor of his estate [1].
• Carlo Santin (“Carlo”) and Bruno Santin (“Bruno”), Emilio’s sons and residuary beneficiaries under his last will dated 23 September 2011 [1].
• Carlo and Bruno are represented by a solicitor, John Whelan (“Whelan”) [3].
• Whelan acted for Emilio between about September 2015 and January 2017 [3].

Carlo and Bruno commenced proceedings seeking order that Rosanna be removed as executor and trustee of their father’s estate [2].

Rosanna  applied to restrain Whelan from continuing to act for Carlo and Bruno on the bases that:

• Whelan formerly acted for the deceased; and
• is likely to be a material witness in relation to contested issues [3].

The loan

Rosanna and her husband, Salvatore (Sam) Sfameni lent Emilio $473,385. They were the mortgagees of a mortgage registered by Rosanna on 29 September 2011 as security for that loan [7].  The loan was used to Read the rest of this entry »