Blog

Hyphenating Children’s Names In Family Law

To hyphenate- or not to hyphenate At first glance, the thought of commencing expensive legal proceedings over whether to hyphenate a child’s family name might make you hyperventilate, however, in a recent Full Court decision, Justices Ryan, Murphy and Aldridge were...

Does Your Teenager always get their way?

Two Australian teenagers are the latest to have their right to enter and reside in the US scrutinized- not by everyone’s favourite Republican (…), but by the Australian High Court. On appeal from a decision of Justice Watts of the Family Court, a new High Court case...

You don’t have to be James and Mariah!

Oh dear! James Packer and Mariah Carey’s breakup with reported talks of about $6 million annual payments and private jets from their prenup agreements raises the question, ‘is this only for the mega rich?’ The answer is no. A recent article in The Age on the use of...

Have you heard of what revenge porn is?

Victoria and South Australia have enacted criminal penalties in relation to perpetrators of revenge porn. Revenge porn is the distribution of sexually explicit images, videos and other materials without consent which is designed to inflict embarrassment and / or worse...

Domestic violence against men: Suck it up, men

  The 2012 Australian Bureau of Statistics Personal Safety Survey shows that 8.2 percent of all men have experienced violence by a female intimate partner-roughly one in 12-with almost a quarter of all victims of intimate partner violence being male. Even though...

Family Violence Commissioner Reports

Family Violence Royal Commissioner, Marcia Neave reported at the Law Institute Family Violence Conference on 5 August 2016 that a fellow judge had told her that he still had nightmares as a consequence of the violence he witnessed of his father towards his mother. The...

Dallas Buyer’s Club Case Against Australian Pirates

An attempt by the copyright owners (DBC) of Hollywood blockbuster, Dallas Buyers Club, to send letters of demand to thousands of alleged Australian piraters, has been recently denied by the Federal Court. In February, DBC won the right to obtain the names and...

Delay in Labour’s challenge to new divorce tax

Moves by the Coalition to introduce hikes in fees for both the Family and Federal Circuit Court were recently rejected by the Senate amidst claims that they were using “family breakdown as a cash cow.” The Government has since introduced almost identical reforms...

What happens if you don’t touch off? Is there a Defence?

$2.7 million… roughly the amount of a Toorak mortgage or the price of a beach house in Sorrento. It was therefore to Sarah Cole’s shock when she found her Myki was this amount in arrears during a recent top up. Ms Cole, an irregular commuter, has dismissed the figure...

Do female family violence abusers ‘get a free pass’?

In a recent article that has conjured up much controversy, former Queensland senator, Bill O’Chee, has cited statistics from the Australian Institute of Criminology to support his claim that female perpetrators of family violence ‘usually get a free pass’. The...

Cocaine, Cross Dressing And Children

In a recent decision, the Federal Circuit Court of Australia has imposed strict parenting arrangements upon the Father of a young daughter, after receiving evidence that the Father could not provide adequate care to the Child as a result of extracurricular activities...