Are you a hopeful parent intending to use a sperm donor to have a child? Or are you a sperm donor intending to assist another in starting or growing their family? If you or someone you know is considering or has already used a sperm donor to conceive a child, it is...
Digital domestic abuse is a growing and dangerous form of family violence that transcends geography and traditional definitions of domestic violence. Technology facilitates perpetrators’ ability to pervasively control and coerce victims. Like all forms of domestic...
As globalisation has made the world more interconnected, it is more common for couples to be married to an overseas resident or own property in several countries. This can convolute divorce settlements as family law legislation from other countries can stipulate...
The 2019 Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Bill is intended to combine the two family courts into the singular Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. The bill passed in the Senate during February following support from key crossbencher, Rex...
Coercive control is a form of domestic abuse that involves a behavioural pattern of acts such as manipulation, gaslighting, humiliation, intimidation, and threats that erode your esteem and independence. Examples of coercive and controlling behavioural patterns...
The Federal Circuit Court was established in 2001 by the Howard Government. It created a second judicial body that would operate in tandem with the Family Court of Australia. The purpose of this court was to enable litigants to access justice in a faster and in a more...
We have previously examined the presumption of ‘equal shared parental responsibility’ in the horrific case of the Edwards family in our blog, The Presumption of Equal Shared Parental Responsibility: The Horrific Case of Olga Edwardson 18 September 2020. We looked at...
A private member’s bill,[1] which is to be heard when Parliament sits in October, proposes to remove the Family Law Act presumption of equal shared parental responsibility and the court’s associated consideration of equal time or substantial and significant time with...
What happened to the Edwards family? In 2016, Olga Edwards, the mother to two teenage children; Jennifer and Jack, left John Edwards, the children’s father, and initiated family law proceedings. An Independent Children’s Lawyer was appointed on behalf of the children....
Do you have a trial date for your family law matter? Do you know what you have to do at your court hearing? Do you know what questions may be asked of you? If you or someone you know is a witness in an upcoming court hearing, you may want to do a test run of a typical...
Relationships and families are being significantly impacted during this unprecedented time of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, during March and April 2020, the Family Court saw a rise of 39% in urgent parenting applications, whilst...
Are you concerned about how conflict in your marriage or relationship might be affecting your children? Or your friend or relative’s children? It is obvious isn’t it, that a combatitive conflictual relationship could affect the children of that relationship, but how...
