Queensland’s Anti Discrimination Tribunal has upheld Virgin Blue’s right to request that applicants sing and dance as part of their assessment. Additionally, it rejected claims that the requirements discriminate against older workers.

A group of mature age applicants for flight attendant positions with Virgin Blue brought a case to the Queensland Anti Discrimination Tribunal, claiming the requirement to perform a song and dance during the assessment process indirectly and directly discriminated against mature age candidates.

The younger applicants at the assessment centre were more easily able to comply with the requirement, they said. But Tribunal member Douglas Savage SC found “at least five fundamental errors” in the claim.

The claim “does not allege that the faculty of song and dance is dependent upon age”. Additionally, while the complainants said that no-one over the age of 35 had been employed by Virgin as a flight attendant, evidence showed that rejected candidates were more likely to be in the age bracket 18-22 (88.4 per cent) than in the age bracket 43-47 (83.3 per cent) during the assessment stage.

The airline actually rejected 93 per cent of candidates under 32 and 92 per cent of candidates above that age. This information was at odds with the case brought against Virgin Blue, the Tribunal said. The claim was struck out and the Tribunal ordered the complainants pay Virgin’s costs.

Dial 911 for drugs

A woman in Ohio has been arrested after calling police several times to arrange a drug deal.

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Twenty-seven year-old Amy Logue called the police station and asked them to meet her at McDonalds near the initially planned spot because she didn’t want to seem too obvious or suspicious.

“It’s the worst case of a mis-dialled phone number I’ve ever seen,” a police spokesperson said. Reportedly, the drug buy was to take place at an empty petrol station. If it had been held there, a lot of other vehicles that could be suspect would be eliminated, police said. But knowing this, Logue apparently tried to avoid the police and dialled the wrong number again, accidentally telling the police where she would be to buy the drugs.

Problems for Paquito the parrot

A divorcing couple in Argentina may be taking each other for all their worth, but blood is really boiling over the fate of their pet parrot.

“Paquito” has resided in the couple’s home for more than 10 years as their pet and, now that things have turned nasty, he has become the centre of the troubles. The husband is accusing his ex-wife of stealing the bird and wants a judge to decide who should keep it.

But the woman’s lawyer, Benjamim Astudillo, said: “My client took the parrot to a friend’s house so that her children could see the bird, which they really missed. The parrot had been left with their father and they have not seen it.” Local police in Cordoba are also involved and are now trying to determine who should keep the bird.

Folklaw received this email from a marketing manager at a leading Sydney law firm. We are always pleased to hear from our readers, and were particularly pleased in this instance to have induced a good old belly laugh.

After picking ourselves up off the ground after reading the column "Laws unto themselves (US version)" in [last week’s] Lawyers Weekly, we are totally confused about whether in North Dakota, if one was to fall asleep whilst lying down with one's shoes on, would one need to be in one's own house to be safe from the law or is it illegal there too?

Congrats on a truly funny column! We are especially entertained by the Atlanta, Georgia law against tying a giraffe to a telephone pole. It does raise the question as to the number of free-roaming giraffe they have in Atlanta.

Thanks for a good belly laugh, something we marketing folk cherish but rarely get!

Legal fiction

Folklaw stumbled upon these in a quick search of an online legal dictionary. The first letter of the rogue dictionary, initially provided by a lawyer website called Power of Attorneys, is enough for now. Of course it’s not necessarily funny, but we thought you might like to know this slight on your profession is out there, dear readers.

Ad infinitum — Latin for ‘forever’, without limit, indefinitely — as in how long the lawyer intends to keep billing you.

Affidavit — A written pack of lies and untruths, when made under oath by an individual and then notarised, becomes a written pack of notarised lies and untruths.

Ambulance chasing — A high stakes, high speed competitive sport engaged in by personal injury lawyers looking to cause an accident and make a quick score.

Amicus curiae — Latin for ‘friend of the court’, as in a lawyer who slips the judge a couple of hundred bucks under the table.

Arbitration — An alternative method of resolving disputes wherein both parties agree to abide by the decision of an arbitrator, who is generally an out of work judge who has lost most of his marbles.

Assault — Touching another with the intent to harm, especially common in instances where the lawyer manages to lose a client’s case.