Guarantee and surety - Long-standing informal arrangement for supply of steel on credit - Supplier insisting on establishment of formal credit arrangement - Express term that supplier entitled to withdraw credit and/or terminate supply if purchaser unable to pay debts when they fell due - Third party presenting winding-up petition against purchaser - Purchaser resisting winding-up petition - Supplier withdrawing credit to company unless director gave personal guarantee - Supplier threatening to support winding-up petition - Good faith - Debtor obtaining legal advice - Whether guarantee obtained by economic duress or unconscionable conduct - Whether guarantee and indemnity extended to indemnity for loss and damage consequential on non-payment by principal debtor.

Contract - Implied duty of good faith and fair dealing - Whether supplier's express right to withdraw credit modified by an implied duty of good faith.

Criminal law - Damaging property - Possessing materials for purpose of damaging property - Defacing advertising sign at municipal bus shelter - Anti-advertising protest - "Lawful excuse" - Crimes Act 1958 (No 6231) ss 196 197 199 201

Human rights - Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities - Freedom of expression - Scope - Imparting of information and ideas - Expressive physical conduct - Graffiti - Anti-advertising protest - Defacing advertising sign at municipal bus shelter - Third party property rights - Lawful restrictions - Corporate property owner - Reasonably necessary restrictions - "Impart information and ideas of all kinds" - "Special duty and responsibility" - Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (No 43) Preamble ss 1(2) 3(1) 5 6(1) 7 15 20 32

Administrative law - Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal - Findings about impact of variation of licence on viability of licensee's business and liquor industry - Absence of evidence or material to support findings - Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998 (No 53) s 98

Liquor and licensing law - Legislative purpose - Harm minimisation - Licence - Variation - Evidence of violence and alcohol abuse - Whether proof of causal link to licensed premises required - Distinction between general evidence, locality evidence and evidence of specific incidents - Liquor Control Reform Act 1998 (No 94) ss 4 29 47

Statutes - Interpretation - Legislative purpose - Primary purpose - Harm minimisation - Liquor Control Reform Act 1998 (No 94) ss 4 44

Criminal law - Offences against the person - Alternative counts - Intentionally or recklessly causing serious injury - Intentionally or recklessly causing injury - Failure to leave lesser alternative offences - Course of trial - Identifying real issues - Defence counsel's forensic judgments - Decision not to request that lesser alternative offences be left to jury - Rational, tactical decisions - Binding effect on client.

Criminal law - Evidence - Lies as consciousness of guilt - Whether lies relied upon capable of constituting implied admissions.

Contract - Construction - Parties' intentions - Legal effect - Commercial object of transaction - Loan facility and securities lending agreement - Amendment - Transfer of beneficial interest in securities - Not held as security for loan - Sale of collateral on default of loan - Proceeds less than market value - Liability to account for market value - Australian Master Securities Lending Agreement.

Damages - Measure of loss - Market value of securities - Securities suspended from trading - Evidence of previous purchases and offers.

Practice and procedure - Group proceeding - Black Saturday (Kilmore East-Kinglake) bushfire (2009) - Group definition - Amendment - Closed class - Class closure - Power to convert open class to closed class - Power to order class closure - Requiring group members to take specified step - Requiring group members to register - Whether appropriate to order class closure or closed class - Risk of loss of substantive rights under class closure - Class closure not appropriate for personal injury or dependency claimants - Civil Procedure Act 2010 (No 47) ss 8 9 49 - Supreme Court Act 1986 (No 110) ss 33H 33K 33KA 33ZE 33ZF 33ZG

Courts and judges - Practice and procedure - Open justice principle - Trial - Evidence - Dissemination - Class action - Class containing 10,000 members - Black Saturday bushfires (2009) - Kilmore East/Kinglake fire - Additional viewing room provided elsewhere in court building - Proposal to broadcast evidence - World Wide Web - Live streaming - Parties agreeing on unlimited web streaming of counsel's addresses - Parties contending for conflicting positions on streaming of evidence - Limited streaming of evidence permitted - Class members and close families - Proviso that witness could apply for direction that evidence not be streamed.

Administrative law - Judicial review - Error of law on face of record - Reasons for decision - Medical questions - Personal injury litigation - Damages - Entitlement - Threshold - Limited to claimants who had suffered significant injury - Assessment of impairment - Referral to medical panel - Provision of conclusive opinion - Adverse determination - Characterisation of panel function - Panel not deciding question of legal right nor determining any issue inter partes - Panel not obliged to provide reasons - Wrongs Act 1958 (No 6420) Pt VBA

Administrative law - Judicial review - Administrative decision - Validity - Medical questions - Expert panel - Power of panel convenor to give procedural directions - Legal effect of direction - Administrative convenience only - Direction that panels give reasons for decisions invalid - Wrongs Act 1958 (No 6420) s 28LZ

Courts and judges - Magistrates' Court - Committal proceedings - Executive function - Stay application - Witness summons - Whether power to dismiss charges in interests of justice - Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (No 7) s 141(4) - Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) s 11.5(6)

Appeal - Whether application for leave to appeal required - Judicial review - Magistrates' Court - Committal proceedings - Order dismissing challenge to magistrate's decision refusing to set aside witness summons - Order below finally determining rights.

Appeal - Grounds - Case on appeal not raised below - Supreme Court supervisory jurisdiction - Need to ensure inferior court acted within its limited powers.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Drug trafficking - Drug of dependence - Pecuniary penalty order by consent - Order vacated - Offender wrongly sentenced on basis that he had obtained profit from trafficking - Offender resentenced.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Guilty plea - Mitigation - Factual assertions by offender's counsel - Sentencing judge referring to general disinclination to accept assertions from Bar table and contents of psychological reports - Indication that cogent admissible evidence required - Error in general approach to factual question.

Criminal law - Sentencing - Guilty plea - Factual material - Mention of content of witness statements in Crown opening - Practice to be discontinued.

Criminal law - Intentionally causing serious injury - Attempting to pervert the course of justice - Attempt committed notwithstanding completed offence impossible - Jury - Verdict - Form - Deliberations - Manner and sequence - Directions - Whether judge impermissibly dictated sequence of jury deliberations.

Criminal law - Drug offences - Trafficking - Methylamphetamine - One count - Ten alternative counts - Jury - Verdict - Form - Deliberations - Manner and sequence - Jury question - Directions - Requirement of unanimous verdict of not guilty on principal charge before need for verdict on alternative - Whether directions impermissibly dictated sequence of deliberations.

Criminal law - Sexual offences - Rape - Mental element - Consent - State of awareness by accused concerning complainant - Basis for understanding that complainant was or might be submitting to penetration - Use of force - Fear of force - Unlawful detention of complainant - Crimes Act 1958 (No 6231) ss 36 37AA 38

Criminal law - Sentence - Rape, false imprisonment and indecent assault - Total effective sentence of 11 years' imprisonment with a minimum term of seven years and four months' imprisonment not manifestly excessive.

Administrative law - Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal - Original jurisdiction - Guardianship and administration - Appointment of administrator - Preconditions - Person with disability - Inability to make reasonable judgments about estate - Involuntary psychiatric patient - Numerous admissions over many years - Hospital assessing person as suitable for supported accommodation placement - Patient wanting to return to reside in own home - Likelihood that administrator would decide to sell patient's home - Patient having limited capacity to manage own affairs unsupported - Whether tribunal erred in interpreting appointment provisions - Best interests of disabled person - Least interference principle - Whether appointment of administrator incompatible with human rights and therefore unlawful - Guardianship and Administration Act 1986 (No 58) ss 4(2) 46(1) 46(2) 46(3) 46(4) - Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (No 43) ss 7(2) 32(1) 32(2) 38(1) 38(2) 39(1)

Human rights - Charter - Applicability - Public authority - Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal - Administrative decision-making - Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (No 43) s 38

Human rights - Charter - Principle of legality - Right to equality - Right to choose where to live - Right to privacy free from arbitrary interference - Right not to be deprived of property - Deprivation of property not in accordance with law - Challenging discretionary decisions for human rights unlawfulness in error of law appeals - Proportionality - Nature and standard of review - Intensity of review - Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal - Tribunal - Deference - Scope of permitted interference with rights and freedoms - Weight and latitude in proportionality analysis - "Arbitrarily" - Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (No 43) ss 7(2) 32(1) 32(2) 38(1) 38(2) 39(1)

Human rights - Charter - Interpretation - Jurisprudential value of decisions of UN Human Rights Committee - Relevance of Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

Negligence - Duty of care - Foreseeability - Risk - Objective evaluation - Whether risk far-fetched or fanciful - Occupier - Shopping centre owner and manager - Employer and employee - Duty to provide safe system of work - Actor supplied to centre to perform role of Father Christmas - Actor assaulted by third party when returning from stage to change-room.

Negligence - Duty of care - Scope - Foreseeability - Risk - Inferences - Prior protective conduct by risk-averse party - No evidence called by defendants as to risk or failure to follow earlier protective practice.

Insurance - Third party liability - Motor vehicle collision - Property damage - Exclusion clause - Damage intentionally caused by insured - Causation - Proof - Inference - Briginshaw v Briginshaw - Whether driver of vehicle committed suicide by deliberating colliding with other vehicle - Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) s 51

Criminal law - Sentence - Sexual offences - Indecent act with child under 16 years - Effect of offences on victim - No sentencing error - Offender's previous good character - Weight - Erroneous assessment - Sentencing Act 1991 (No 49) ss 5 8K 8L

Courts and judges - Procedural fairness - Sentence - Plea - Judge resorting to materials not referred to on plea - Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Edition IV-TR) - Observations on judges or juries undertaking research on the internet - Warning to be given to juries.

Criminal law - Evidence - Admissibility - Relevance - Tendency evidence - Motor vehicle offences - Dangerous driving causing death - Dangerous driving causing serious injury - Earlier driving behaviour - Evidence inadmissible - Insufficient relationship with later driving - "Significant probative value" - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) ss 55 97(1)(b)

Criminal law - Sexual offences - Children - Indecent act with or in presence of child under 16 - Context - Use of images and language - Fifty-five year old man showing graphic sexual images on mobile telephone to 13 year old girl - Sexual gratification not necessary element - "With" - "In the presence" - Crimes Act 1958 (No 6231) s 47

Criminal law - Sexual offences - Children - Sexual penetration of child under 16 - Verdicts not unsafe or unsatisfactory.

Defamation - Limitation of actions - Limitation period - Extension - Application - Test - Not reasonable in circumstances for claimant to have commenced action within period - Alleged defamation on talkback radio programme - Australian Broadcasting Corporation ("ABC") - ABC Code of Practice - Claimant pursuing complaint with ABC and Australian Communications and Media Authority - Complaint rejected - One year limitation period expiring - Claimant waiting another 10 months before instituting proceedings - Leave to appeal against refusal of extension refused - Limitation of Actions Act 1958 (No 6295) s 5(1AAA) - Defamation Act 2005 (No 75) s 25B(2)

Criminal law - Trial - Fair trial - Jury - Deliberation - Sequence - Intentionally causing serious injury - Direction given for alternative charges - Judge not impermissibly dictating sequence of jury's deliberations - Jury's finding of guilt of intentionally causing serious injury inevitable - Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (No 7) s 276(1)

Companies - Enforcement - Civil penalties - Company officer and employee - Obligations - Failure to act with due care and diligence - International trade - Contracts for sale of wheat to Iraq - Terms - Purported land transportation charges and after sales service fees - Admitted contraventions of United Nations Security Council Resolutions 660 (1990) and 986 (1995) - Settlement agreement - Pecuniary penalty of $40,000 - Disqualification from managing corporations for 15 months - Agreed statement of facts - Inaccurate assessment of respondent's role in contravention - Weight to be given to agreed penalty - Trial judge imposing penalty of $10,000 and disqualification for four and half months - Appeal allowed - Original agreed pecuniary penalty and period of disqualification substituted - Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) s 180.

Employer and employee - Contract of employment - Employee agreeing to be bound by employer's policies - Redundancy policy - Principles of redundancy - Defined meaning - Reorganisation of workplace - Attributes of pre-reorganisation work and proposed post-reorganisation work compared - Pre-reorganisation position and proposed post-reorganisation position compared - Major portion of pre-reorganisation work not required proposed post-reorganisation - "Required".

Criminal law - Road safety offences - Failing to allow a doctor or approved health professional to take a blood sample following an accident involving a motor vehicle - Common law presumption that criminal liability attaches only to acts or omissions that are voluntary - Common law presumption not displaced - "Allow" - Road Safety Act 1986 (No 127) s 56(2)

Criminal law - Sentencing - Intentionally causing serious injury - Whether need for explicit reference to principle - Totality - Culpability - Mental illness - First Verdins principle - Real connection between mental impairment and offending for reduction of moral culpability - Delay - Plea of guilty immediately before trial after long delay - Whether delay productive of unfairness - Whether of mitigatory character - Victim impact statements - Whether content inadmissible - Sentence of ten years not manifestly excessive - Sentencing Act 1991 (No 49) s 8L

Criminal law - Sexual offences - Indecent assault - Rape - Evidence - Unreliability warning - Complainant cognitively impaired and suffering from schizophrenia - Whether direction should have been given - Whether reasonable possibility that evidence of kind that may be unreliable - Whether good reason for not giving warning - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) s 165

Criminal law - Sentence - Sexual offences - Indecent assault - Rape - Total effective sentence of eight years and three months' imprisonment not manifestly excessive.

Criminal law - Sexual offences against children - Evidence - Admissibility - Improbability of guilt - Lay opinion - Good character - Particular respect - Directions that offences against children committed in private undermined defence of good character - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) s 110

Criminal law - Murder - Co-offender - Complicity - Whether aiding and abetting or acting in concert - Evidence - Hearsay - Victim's emergency telephone calls admissible to prove accused's participation - Consciousness of guilt - Lies - Verdict not unsafe and unsatisfactory - Evidence Act 2008 (No 47) ss 65(2) 137

Criminal law - Murder - Recklessly cause serious injury - Evidence - Prosecutor relied on lies told by accused in record of interview - No Broadhurst direction given - Zoneff direction necessary - No substantial miscarriage of justice - Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (No 7) s 276

Criminal law - Inconsistent verdicts - Stab wounds to each victim inflicted within seconds of each other - Accused found to have murderous intent for one victim and reckless intent to cause serious injury for other - Whether open to jury to find accused possessed different level of intention.

Sentencing - Accused wrongly sentenced as serious violent offender - Sentencing discretion re-opened - No different sentence should be imposed - Sentencing Act 1991 (No 49) s 6B(2)(b)