Welcome news for small business

One of the real worries for small business is affordable access to the Australian legal system. Our current system is too slow and is far too expensive.

A big risk is if you lose then the loser is up for the other sides fees and I have seen cases where the large corporation has used the old delay, deny, defend approach for years and then when the trial is about to start asked for surety of costs. Having already damaged the business by not paying what was owed and then wasting heaps of money in trying to get the big corporation into court, many years later, they of course do not have the funds to put down the surety and so they lose the case by default regardless of the merits of their case. Of course some large corporations know this and play this card very well.

I am therefore very pleased to see that New legislation, passed by Federal Parliament, means small business owners can make a request to court – early in a court challenge – to avoid paying the legal costs of their much larger debtors if they lose court action against them.

If a judge decides their case is in the public interest a small business can pursue the court action without fear of paying adverse legal costs if they lose.

Well done Federal Parliament! This decision I support, I just wished it went further.