A blended family matter on Sydney’s Northern Beaches

Family law matters can be complicated and emotionally challenging, and for Michelle (name changed for privacy), her journey began as no exception.

Michelle had initially been married with two children. After that relationship ended, the pair shared custody of the kids as she began a relationship and soon married a new man. With two kids of his own, together they lived as a blended family in a home they bought on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

Dying intestate in Australia is generally a bad idea, both from the point of having no control over the distribution of your estate and because there is no Federal legislation governing intestacy; how it is handled will vary state to state. It’s important for people of all ages to create a will so they can dictate what happens to their assets and make it simpler for their families to navigate and handle their estate.

Testamentary trusts are one of the more obscure branches of estate planning and, at first glance, appear to be very complex and only appropriate for niche situations. In truth, testamentary trusts are far less daunting than they first appear and offer a multitude of benefits for your beneficiaries, while also allowing you more control over your estate than a run of the mill will would allow. 

In today’s modern age of smartphones, smartwatches and other electronic devices, recording audio and video in real-time is ever easier. The cost of installing recording devices in the home and business premises has also gone down. Given the prominence of such devices in our daily lives, questions about privacy and limitation of their use comes into question. For example, can we record private conversations? Can we use them as evidence in a dispute?

Generally, a de facto relationship boils down to you and your partner having a relationship, living as a couple for two years but not being married. However, when a de facto relationship ends has always been somewhat unclear.

What is a Power of Attorney?

There are two main types of power of attorney:

• a general power of attorney ends when you lose the capacity to make your own decisions

• an enduring power of attorney continues even after you lose the capacity to make your own decisions.

Do I need to finalise my property settlement with orders? And how long do I have?

What if I dont get orders - How long after can I or my partner bring an application to the court?

Can my property orders be set aside?

De facto, or ‘common law’ marriage, is where a couple are not officially married, but have been living together on a ‘genuine domestic basis.’ If a de facto couple splits up, the Court may treat them the same as a married couple going through a divorce.

Gambling, reckless spending behaviour and ill-considered business dealings, giving away assets or free rent and underselling assets are all examples of behaviour we sometimes see in family law property matter and they also are circumstances the Court has determined as wasting the family finances and are taken into account by the Court in determining Family Law proceedings.

Are you or is someone in your family currently living in a granny flat?

61% of households in Australia own pets, According to Animal Medicines Australia, and most people consider their dog or cat as a member of their family .

So what happens when the family is broken up through divorce or separation. Who has custody over their pets and how is this decided by Australian courts?

So, what exactly is a Duty of Disclosure and why might it apply to me?

When you settle your family court matter and arrive at a final property settlement, it is generally assumed by members of the general public that is that, it's final and everyone can move on. However, your final settlement may not stop ex-spouses from making a future claim on your estate. Unfortunately, this was the case for Dr. Lodin and others alike. An appeal case has recently been decided in the NSW Court of Appeal on this matter.