During COVID isolation the mother of a 17-year old child with high autism needs suspended all contact with the father and placed a notice on her front door saying the child was vulnerable and would not be leaving the house. The father defaced the notice and sought a court order to stop the mother. [...]
State borders are still closed and most children have returned to school. The question for many parents is "if you have a health concern for your child, can you refuse to comply with a parenting court order?". That is, can you contravene it? This has become a popular topic in the current COVID-19 climate, [...]
It is very common for adult children to rely on the “bank of mum and dad” when purchasing property, investing in businesses or getting them out of a sticky financial situation. Grandparents are often also relied on heavily to care for grandchildren, providing free child care for their own children. What if they divorce? [...]
All students as of 25 May 2020 should have gone back to school. In Queensland there was a staggered start for school students to return to school with students in kindy, prep, Year 1, Year 11 and 12 returning first on 11 May 2020 followed by Years 2 to Year 10 on 25 May [...]
What does the court do in a division of property when one spouse has received a large lump sum payment as a result of a serious health condition or personal injury. Is it ‘my injury, so my contribution’? Each situation will have its own unique facts. Here is an example of what the court [...]
COVID-19 has had a significant impact for separated families, raising issues such as closed State borders and no child contact due to fears of illness. In one month, the court has had a 40% increase in urgent court applications. The court has created a new fast-track process for dealing with these. This new listing [...]
The most commonly-asked question in Family Law is “What age does the Court take a child’s wishes into account?” – but there is so much more to the topic. This webinar will give straight-forward and practical answers to questions like: What age does a child have to be? What if parent’s statements about the [...]
Not surprisingly, one of the most common questions we get is what will someone’s entitlement in a property settlement be? The answer is: it will differ for everyone – but here is what you should consider. The property settlement process is complicated, but essentially it involves the identification and valuation of the relationship property (which is broadly [...]
One of the great misunderstandings is how assets in trusts are dealt with in the Family Court. Are they excluded or are they in? Asset pools in these cases can be significant, so before you suggest a particular asset-holding structure for a client, it's important to know what the answer is. In this webinar [...]
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic Google has reported the highest number of searches for domestic violence help that they have seen in the past five years. Domestic violence services are already reporting an increase in demand. Here is some valuable information to assist anyone in such a situation.The statistics on domestic violence are [...]
