Category: Commercial

A note on Dorante-Day v Dailymail.com Australia Pty Ltd [2026] QCA 167, in which the Court of Appeal held that a purported concerns notice identifying no defamatory imputation is not a notice that fails to particularise adequately within s 12A(3), so the further particulars machinery never engages and the document is not a concerns notice at all. The test applied is substantial compliance, the Court describing the s 12A(1) requirements as not onerous. The consequence is that s 12B(1) bars commencement and the defamation claim is liable to summary dismissal. The appeal was dismissed with costs, though the orders below were varied to preserve a possible copyright damages claim. Whether leave under s 12B(3) could be granted nunc pro tunc to validate proceedings already commenced was expressly left open.

A note on Colagrande v Kim [2022] FCA 409, in which the Federal Court treated the anonymity of a fake online review as an aggravating circumstance and made a single award of damages for non-economic loss against both posters, with special damages assessed separately.

Six weeks of recurring bullying and lack of diligence justified termination of a cooperative joint venture. The pressured oral exit then failed, with oppression consequences.