Pub­li­ca­tions

Jun 25, 2019

What hap­pens to chil­dren on the death of a res­i­den­tial par­ent in the con­text of divorce and separation

There is no auto­mat­ic right for the sur­viv­ing par­ent to have the care of chil­dren after the death of the res­i­den­tial par­ent. On the death of a res­i­den­tial par­ent the par­ent­ing order that spec­i­fies that the chil­dren would live with them ceas­es. Most par­ents have joint parental respon­si­bil­i­ty, so it is…

Jun 13, 2019

Divorce and Sep­a­ra­tion — What you need to know

How long do I have to be sep­a­rat­ed before I can divorce my spouse? A divorce is the Court’s recog­ni­tion that a mar­riage no longer exists and a sep­a­ra­tion shows your inten­tion to divorce. In Aus­tralia you are required to be sep­a­rat­ed for a peri­od of 12 months before you can make an Appli­ca­tion for Divorce…

Nov 7, 2018

The ABC of CGT in your fam­i­ly law prop­er­ty settlement

Tax costs have an effect on the prop­er­ty pool avail­able for dis­tri­b­u­tion. In prop­er­ty cas­es, the Court may take into account Cap­i­tal Gains Tax (CGT) allowances when deter­min­ing the asset pool. This arti­cle will set out how CGT is usu­al­ly treat­ed by the Court in fam­i­ly law prop­er­ty set­tle­ment proceedings…

Sep 21, 2018

Show me the mon­ey: the con­se­quences of fail­ing to dis­close assets in fam­i­ly law proceedings

Par­ties to finan­cial fam­i­ly law cas­es have an ongo­ing duty to dis­close the mate­r­i­al facts relat­ing to their finan­cial posi­tion. This prin­ci­ple was stat­ed in In the mar­riage of Briese, where the court said that ​“a per­son … has a pos­i­tive oblig­a­tion to set out at an ear­ly stage [their] finan­cial…

Sep 21, 2018

What’s in a name? Chang­ing your child’s sur­name after sep­a­ra­tion or divorce

Your child’s name can be changed where you have the con­sent of the oth­er par­ent and the change of name is in the child’s best interests.  Change of name with­out oth­er par­en­t’s consent  In Chap­man and Palmer, the Full Court of the Fam­i­ly Court held that a court will not pre­vent a par­ent from…

Sep 21, 2018

Domes­tic vio­lence in finan­cial cas­es in the Fam­i­ly Court and Fed­er­al Cir­cuit Court of Australia

The Fam­i­ly Law Act 1975 estab­lished the ​‘no fault’ divorce prin­ci­ple. This means that, unlike in some oth­er juris­dic­tions, to estab­lish grounds for divorce, courts do not have to con­sid­er which part­ner is to blame for the break­down of a marriage.  Where domes­tic vio­lence can be a fac­tor estab­lish­ing ​‘fault’ as grounds…

Mar 18, 2016

If cir­cum­stances change, so can Par­ent­ing Orders

In brief: It may come as a relief to some that Par­ent­ing Orders made by the court are not always set in stone. If your cir­cum­stances change, so too can the orders. And there are a num­ber of rea­sons why you might wish to change Par­ent­ing Orders after they have been made by the Court. …

Oct 13, 2015

Social media in fam­i­ly law pro­ceed­ings — how is it used?

In brief Social media goes far beyond cat videos (although it might not always seem like it). We use it to broad­cast our joys, fears, grudges, homes and dai­ly rou­tines. We use it to com­mu­ni­cate with each oth­er, both pub­licly and pri­vate­ly. A recent paper pub­lished in the Fam­i­ly Law Review…

Apr 11, 2013

Rela­tion­ship break­down check­list — what should you do if you separate?

Finan­cial steps to consider Check all joint accounts and home loan redraws. Change PINs and pass­words. With­draw sur­plus funds or restrict access. Speak to your bank. Check all joint cred­it accounts, includ­ing cred­it cards, store cards and over­drafts. Restrict access or can­cel cards and get new ones. If you do not have a bank…