Bede Haines

Expertise

Bede’s expertise involves commercial litigation, disputes, advisory work, and deploying strategies in resolving issues. He focuses on property rights, complex contractual and commercial matters, land disputes, equity and insolvency. His court experience extends across jurisdictions. Bede’s approach is responsive, commercial, and he’s interested in his clients, their businesses and industries.

Experience

His experience includes:

• representation of governmental and institutional clients including for property and contractual disputes in the Supreme Court, Land and Environment Court, and Court of Appeal. Some recent examples are litigation over a long-term land interests in a regional airport, and litigation between a property trust’s trustees, and litigating a significant trespass to public land
• Supreme Court litigation including over commercial matters such as termination rights under significant commercial contracts and seeking specific performance
• advising and representing land holders in put and call option disputes, and other agreements concerning land
• advising on, and litigating, land tax disputes, land valuation disputes and compulsory acquisitions. For example, contesting whether land is exempt from land tax, appropriate valuation methodology, and statutory interpretation
• litigating and resolving easement disputes, caveat disputes and leasing disputes. Examples include over rights of way between commercial properties, and the abandonment or modification of easements to accommodate development
• acting for receivers and managers in Supreme Court litigation relating to realising assets, including competing interests in proceeds from selling real property
• advising on land titling and land boundary issues
• advising owners corporations and strata managers. This includes appointing compulsory managers to a large owners corporation, and the appointment being upheld on appeal
• advising corporate trustees of unit trusts, including in relation to the exercise of contractual rights and trust powers.