Haldeman LLC reaches out of court settlement with Seven Network

In October 2011 Haldeman LLC filed defamation proceedings in the Supreme Court of Western Australia against Seven Network, operators of Channel 7, for untrue statements broadcast on the Sunrise program on 15 September 2011 and published on the Yahoo7! website. A copy of the writ of summons issued on 5 October 2011 is available here. Haldeman LLC and Seven Network have today reached a confidential out of court settlement and this matter is now finalised.

Haldeman LLC vs Seven Network, Statement from Fair Trading

On 15 September 2011, Bob Melling, Principal Compliance Officer from the Queensland Office of Fair Trading made a public statement about Mining Australia. The statement confirmed that Mining Australia is operating legally and is in compliance with Australia’s Fair Trading legislation.

The untrue and defamatory statements broadcast by Seven Network caused considerable damage to the company’s reputation, however the defamatory material was fairly promptly removed from the Yahoo7! website. Haldeman LLC can only surmise that this retraction occurred because Mr Melling had confirmed our work to be in accordance with Fair Trading legislation, and by extension that the attacks by Seven Network were unwarranted. In addition to making several general statements about employment type websites, Mr Melling had this to specifically say about Mining Australia at www.australia-mining.com:

"There is a fine line between promising and guaranteeing somebody a job and actually just providing information and [Mining Australia] is on that side where they don't actually promise or guarantee a job"

Bob Melling, Principal Compliance Officer

Queensland Office of Fair Trading

15 September 2011

This statement of course acknowledges what is made entirely clear in the first paragraph on the the Mining Australia homepage – namely “We have extensive experience helping people get into the Australia mining industry. But in saying that we are not a quick fix. It is not possible to guarantee employment, however if you follow our comprehensive recommendations and advice, you will maximise your employment prospects”.

Verifiable customer feedback is available at http://www.australia-mining.com/testimonials.php which confirms our customers understand, appreciate and value our service

Haldeman LLC files defamation proceedings against Seven Network, operators of Channel 7

On 15 September 2011, Channel 7 broadcast a series of defamatory statements about our services on their Sunrise program. During this program segment, the presenter made a series of defamatory statements about our www.australia-mining.com website. These false allegations caused serious damage to the reputation of Haldeman LLC.

On 16 September 2011, Haldeman LLC instructed our Perth lawyers to initiate defamation action against the Seven Network for the defamatory material broadcast and published on the Yahoo7! website. Additionally, Haldeman LLC demanded that Channel Seven retract all allegations publicly and remove the program segment from the Yahoo7! website.

While Seven Network promptly removed all defamatory material from the Yahoo7! website, they did not publicly retract their previous statements as requested. On 5 October 2011 defamation proceedings were filed in the Supreme Court of Western Australia against Seven Network. In the Writ of Summons available here, Haldeman LLC is claiming for, “damages for defamation, including damages together with interest on such damages from 15 September 2011,” including costs. Litigation is ongoing against Seven Network.