This paper deals with: The effect of death (and imminent death) and ageing on the property aspects of matrimonial and de facto relationship breakdown under the Family Law Act; and The law relating to the care of children when one parent dies. Death of a party before property proceedings are issued Section 79 proceedings for a...
Introduction The most sweeping change to the legislation in this book since the publication of the last edition was the renaming of the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia as the Federal Circuit Court of Australia. This received widespread publicity. Less publicised was the insertion of two further Parts into the Family Law...
Having it all is a modern ideal with complex realities Each generation of women faces different challenges with careers and family. I believe the generation before mine faced greater ones than I did. Bizarrely, I also believe the current generation of female law graduates face greater challenges than me. I was born in 1961,...
Understanding inconsistency in the law between states in Australia presents problems for practitioners and their clients. Navigating the many legal barriers facing those desperate for a child, who battle bureaucracies and the legal systems of Australia and other nations, is a major challenge. There is also a significant amount...
Legal professional privilege is the privilege of the client, but lawyers need to ensure that the privilege is not unintentionally lost. Sometimes it is lost by waiver, but it can be lost in other ways. The Full Court of the Family Court, in another appeal in the protracted Strahan litigation, Strahan & Strahan [2013]...
Introduction The ability to split superannuation as part of adjusting property interests between the parties at the end of a de facto relationship or marriage offers opportunities and challenges to family lawyers and clients. This paper first gives a general overview of the superannuation splitting scheme and then looks at...
I have found that family lawyers generally fall into one of 2 camps when considering the impact of the High Court of Australia's decision in Stanford.[1] There is one camp who submits that the decision can be limited to its extraordinary facts, and that its general comments on the way that a Court should approach its s79...
Background Before 2005 trustees and non-bankrupt spouses were often engaged in races to commence or complete litigation in different courts. The Bankruptcy and Family Law Legislation Amendment Act 2005 ("the 2005 Act") applies to bankruptcies for which the date of bankruptcy was on or after 18 September 2005. The solution was...
Stanford’s Impact on Legal & Equitable Interests in Unsecured Liabilities During Bankruptcy The High Court decision of Stanford v Stanford[1] has implications for trustees in bankruptcy and non-bankrupt spouses who are parties to property proceedings under s 79 Family Law Act (“FLA"). This paper explores some of the...
When one of the parties receives a "windfall", such as an inheritance or a Tattslotto win, after separation, the recipient may seek to "quarantine" it on the basis that the other party had not contributed to it. Even if it is not quarantined, should the contribution of a post-separation "windfall" be given more weight than one...
Changes are pending in Federal Parliament to the financial agreement provisions in the Family Law Act 1975 ("the Act"), particularly in relation to the following: Requirements to be binding; Grounds for setting them aside; and Spousal maintenance. The Family Law Amendment (Financial Agreements and Other Measures) Bill 2015...
PRINT PDF In Segelov v Ernst & Young Services Pty Ltd [2015] NSWCA 156, the New South Wales Court of Appeal considered the question of whether a trustee owed a duty of notification to a beneficiary of a discretionary trust. The beneficiary did not know that she was a beneficiary of the trust or that she received...