In 2012, a 21 year old Chinese woman was beaten to death by her mother-in-law who wanted her son to divorce the woman and marry another woman for a $500,000 dowry. In 2014, an Indian man murdered his wife in front of their young son and later took his own life,...
Matrimonial Losses – Sexually Transmitted Debt Matrimonial debt accrued during a marriage is shared by both husband and wife in most cases at the end of a marriage. In a well-known case the Family Court stated that ‘marriage is for most couples an economic...
Are post-separation contributions included in the asset pool in family law property cases? The short answer is Yes, post-separation contributions are a monetary contribution type included in the asset pool to be assessed in a property settlement for the...
In recent times, the Family Court has been criticised for its failure to provide efficient and effective services due to the Government’s lack of funding and failure to legislate to improve its process. The response was to delegate and split the work load with the...
The Women’s Legal Service say that it is not. A client of mine recently left her husband of 15 years with her three young children, after he came to bed with a knife, having had one of his regular five bottle binges. Despite this horrendous event she was still...
Child Support and Private School Fee Disputes As a parent, if you have a higher level of income, you will be obligated to pay a percentage of your income to support your children. Typically, financial support for a child is determined by an assessment carried out by...
Spousal support after separation is a big issue. We frequently see the breakdown of relationships whereby one party is in control of the household finances and is the main breadwinner while the other party is primarily responsible for raising children and running the...
The High Court’s decision in Thorne and Kennedy (2017) HCA 49 has put prenuptial agreements back into the spotlight and will have huge implications for both existing and future prenuptial agreements. Ms Thorne was a penniless young Eastern European woman who fell in...
The separation between famous morning show anchor, Karl Stefanovic and his wife Cassandra Thornburn has made recent headlines. With Cassandra recently expressing her thoughts and feelings in an interview, she sheds light on the grittiness of separation. You may not be...
A couple I know were recently divorced. I was not involved in their case from a legal point of view at all. The build up was a common story that is heard these days. They fell in love, got married, had children and slowly the love faded. The wife felt like she was...
I understand that a divorce is often an emotionally charged situation that can often only be truly understood by the two people involved. The decision to separate is rarely a split second one, and there are almost always slow burning issues that develop over time and...
The use of corporal punishment in response to problem behaviour in children is an age-old practice that is still often resorted to by modern parents. Its pervasiveness is reflected in our legal system- in every jurisdiction in Australia, there is a defence to conduct...
