New statistics released by the Childrens Court of Victoria has revealed an alarming increase in the number of domestic violence orders made against children for acts committed against their parents. In 2014 alone, more than 870 children received family violence...
Victoria Police is set to follow in the footsteps of the new Andrews government, committing itself to appointing its first Assistant Commissioner for Domestic Violence, following the assignment of Northcote MP Fiona Richardson as Victoria’s first Minister for...
Premier-elect, Daniel Andrews, has been working hard to bring positive change to Victoria’s discrimination laws just days after winning office. Hours after resuming the newly appointed role of Equality Minister, Martin Foley took no time to promise changes to...
Historically family trusts have caused difficulties in family law property proceedings because if a party to the proceeding was also a beneficiary of the trust, that party would technically not own any property until a distribution occurred. The Family Court’s...
New laws are now in force throughout Victoria criminalising the malicious or deliberate sharing of intimate photos of an adult without their consent, or the sharing of images of anyone under 18 years of age, otherwise known as ‘sexting’. The two new laws attract hefty...
A recent survey of 9856 Australian married adults who admit to cheating on their spouse or partner has revealed that children are one of the reasons that they refrain from getting a divorce. Victoria Milan is a self-proclaimed dating website ‘specially designed for...
‘A recent Family Court decision[1] demonstrates the importance of receiving accurate advice from a solicitor when entering into a binding Financial Agreement, also called a prenup or prenuptial agreement. The Full Court of the Family Court has recently...
New laws that came into effect on Sunday now grant police the power to issue family violence intervention orders 24/7 in a bid to afford greater protection to victims of family violence. Previously, police were only able to issue on-the-spot intervention orders for...
In the recent decision of Hoffman v Hoffman [2014] FamCAFC 92, the Family Court of Australia Full Court found that the previously relied upon ‘notion of special contribution has all been a terrible mistake’ (Hoffman at [61], citing D & D [2005] FamCA 1462 at...
After two years of court proceedings, a woman who won $6 million in a lottery can now enjoy the entirety of her winnings in peace. The woman’s ex-husband – with whom she was married for 20 years before their separation in 2008 – attempted to claim a piece of the pie...
In a recent decision of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia, a father has been granted monthly supervised visits with his three-year-old daughter with whom he was estranged. The Mother and the Father (who have never been married and separated prior to the child’s...
It can prove difficult to find additional time and financial resources to accommodate the company of children during school holidays. A recent UK study of 2,000 parents indicated that women, more so than men, found the school holiday period particularly stressful. The...
