Legal Advice

How Can Family Violence Affect Property Orders?

August 9, 2021April 1, 2023

In Australia, and internationally, domestic abuse is sadly an ever-growing concern. As well as the criminal consequences which follow, family lawyers will tell you that family violence can also have implications for property settlements following a divorce.

Property settlements are determined under the Family Law Act depending on how much each side, in both financial and non-financial respects, has participated in the partnership. Previously, the actions of partners throughout a marriage were not a significant consideration, however that has changed, and one case in particular has influenced that.

The Kennon Marriage Case is one of the pioneering judgments where domestic abuse was a central factor in deciding the right of a claimant to the marital property. Kennon’s 1997 Family Court of Australia decision examined whether domestic abuse could change the result of a settlement of the property.

The husband had a considerably higher salary than his wife and had added far more money and assets to the marriage by the time they came to divorce. The wife claimed a number of abusive actions against her had occurred, comprised of seven separate charges of physical abuse, and believed that a property change in her interest should result from these actions.

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How To Request That Old Convictions Are Considered Spent

December 28, 2020October 19, 2022

If you have been previously convicted of a crime, even if you served your sentence or paid the fine, it can still cause a number of difficulties in your life. Even with the best criminal lawyer representing you, they cannot simply wipe the slate clean for you, no matter how model a citizen you are now.

However, what your criminal lawyer can do is to start the process of having your conviction considered as spent. Once this occurs, you are no longer obligated by law to disclose that you have been previously convicted of a crime to anyone.

Now you might be thinking, that if you were asked to disclose any criminal convictions that you could simply not admit anything for the reason that you have already served your punishment, be that a prison sentence, community service, or a fine. Unfortunately, it is not that simple, and worse, by withholding that information, you could be committing yet another crime.

There are a number of circumstances in which you are legally obligated to disclose any previous conviction and when we explain them, you will hopefully understand why. First, anyone who is applying to become a police, prison or transport officer must disclose. This is understandable given that those who are employed to uphold the law, should not be lawbreakers themselves.

Other roles that involve high levels of duty of care must also disclose convictions. This list sees those who work in hospitals, schools, and care centres, as well as anyone who wishes to be a volunteer.

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How Legally Compliant Is Your Online Business Presence?

August 17, 2020May 11, 2021

If you ask any commercial lawyer what one of the biggest oversights business owners make is, they will tell you that it is their failure to ensure that their online presence is legally compliant.

By online presence, we are primarily talking about the business’s website in whatever form or forms that may take. It could be that a business has a corporate website, a separate blog, or it may have an online e-commerce site. Whatever type of online property they use, they must realise and appreciate that everything needs to be legally protected.

When we say protected we do not mean they need to take out any kind of insurance, but instead, that they have elements within their websites that cover them against litigation, or them falling foul of the law as it relates to operating online.

The frustrating aspect of this, as any commercial lawyer, will attest to, is that it is not especially difficult to make sure you have all the bases covered when it comes to being compliant and meeting your legal obligations online. The addition of a number of pages with specific text can often be all that it takes to be compliant.

You will undoubtedly be aware of the significant increase in publicity about online privacy and data protection. Well, if you operate any kind of website, especially if it is a commercial one, you need to take account of privacy laws.

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What Is the Difference Between Redundancy and Contract Termination?

June 2, 2020April 11, 2023

As an employer, it’s extremely important to make sure that you’re familiar with common legal jargon to ensure you’re following the correct procedures and not unknowingly breaking the law. Consulting with employment lawyers is never a bad idea, as they will be able to explain everything and direct you if you’re not quite doing things right.

A lot of inexperienced employers get confused about the differences between redundancy and standard contract termination, and they make mistakes as a result. In the rest of this article, we’ve explored both of these, as well as what each one involves and what your obligations as an employer are.

What Is Redundancy?

Redundancy refers to removing a position because it’s no longer needed. In many cases, a person will lose their job when a position is made redundant, but it won’t always happen. Redundancies occur because:

A person’s job has been automated or taken over by a machine of some sort.
A company downsizes and therefore the position isn’t required anymore.
A person’s job is no longer required because the work is split between other existing positions.
A company goes bankrupt or insolvent and can’t afford to keep the employee on.

Unfortunately, redundancies are all too common in the modern world. But, the good news is that employees who are made redundant are usually entitled to a redundancy payout which, in some cases, can be quite large.

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How to Reduce the Stress of Divorce

September 10, 2018April 1, 2023

Few people want to go through a divorce, but in some cases it happens and there’s not much you can do about it. Most lawyers will tell you that the best way to ease the stress is to understand what your rights are. A consultation with a top family lawyer who have experience in handling divorce is the best way to achieve this.

These days, divorce is not the painful procedure it once was. No one has to prove fault to get a divorce. All you need to do is leave your spouse for 12 months and then apply for a divorce citing there is no chance the marriage can be made to work and that the two people are not likely to get back together again. You can apply for a divorce online if you have the necessary computer skills. You also need to pay the fee online.

In some cases, it is better to consult with a lawyer or legal advisor who can put the application for the divorce in for you. He may even do it online, but you’ll need to pay him the fee plus his consultation fee. Still, it can be worth it to ease your stress, especially if you have no computer or don’t have the skills or an internet connection. It is also very helpful to talk to someone about your rights, especially if there are children or financial assets involved.

It’s important to understand that an application for a divorce does not settle the above questions; children and assets. If the children are minors, it is important to ensure they will be well looked after. This may already have happened if you’ve been living apart for 12 months. Traditionally, children lived with their mother, so long as she was a fit person to care for them. These days, this is not always the case.

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How Long does a Divorce Take?

March 23, 2018November 11, 2019

If you are in a relationship that is very unhappy you might be considering divorce proceedings. How long will it take to get a divorce? It is not quite as simple as it may sound. A good family lawyer will tell you that you must be separated for 12 months before you can apply for a divorce. And if you’ve been married for less than two years you must go to counselling together first, unless there is a good reason that this is not possible.

When getting advice from your family lawyers, you’ll find that if your spouse is violent and abusive, you won’t need to go to counselling. Or if your spouse refuses to attend counselling, there is no way you can force the issue, so this is also a reason that counselling may be avoided.

So, the very first step to a divorce when the relationship has broken down irretrievably is to separate from your spouse. At 12 months and one day after the separation, you can put an application in to the courts to file for divorce. You will have to attend court for the divorce hearing and if it is granted on that day, the Divorce Order will be issued one month and one day after the hearing. This is only if both parties agree to the divorce. The whole process takes about four months if everything goes well.

If the other party does not agree or if there is a delay in serving with the Notice of Divorce – for instance, if he cannot be found, there will be a delay, because the divorce cannot be granted until this happens. This can delay the divorce for some months.

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How to Ensure Your Business Contracts are Fair

August 10, 2017March 26, 2020

When you run a small business you will come across any number of standard business contracts that are essential to the day to day running of your small business. Most commercial lawyers like Rowe Bristol, that you would find on a lawyer’s list, know that in general, many of these are actually unfair to the small business because they are not drafted in favour of the larger companies that offer them.

Many standard form contracts have not been at all fair to the small business. Up until now, there was not much you could do about it, except try to have a clause put in that covered your liability, but the other party didn’t have to agree to it, so it was either sign up or lose the deal. However, that has just changed, so you don’t have to suffer under any unfair contracts any more.

However, just so that things don’t swing the other way and become unfair to those who offer the contract, unfair terms must be examined in a court of law to ensure they are truly unfair and will cause the small business undue financial or other kind of hardship if not removed. It must also be proven that removing them will not adversely affect the other company.

This particular law was passed in November 2016, even though there was another similar law in place since 2010. This particular law was passed to protect the interests of small business where standard contracts are concerned. This applies to both new contracts and renewed ones. If any contract is varied after the 12^th November 2016, the law also applies to that.

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Can Police Issue Violence Restraining Orders?

January 3, 2017April 1, 2023

If you are a victim of violence and the police become involved, they can make an immediate Violence Restraining Order (VRO) against the person who hurt you. This is called a Police Order and will be in effect for 72 hours, long enough for you to make your own application for a permanent VRO. Competent lawyers can help you to make the application and give you a great deal of legal advice about your rights and the rights of the other person involved.

The Police Orders will prevent the person from coming near you and the places where you work and live. The police will also remove any weapons from the offender and may arrest and charge the offender. If the person is released on bail, the bail conditions that are set will also prevent the person from coming near you.

The two types of restraining orders are the VRO and a Misconduct Restraining Order (MRO) which is the chosen order when the persons involved are not in a domestic or family relationship – that is, anyone you are not related to by birth, a de facto relationship or marriage.

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Obligation of Directors in Shareholder Disputes

December 10, 2016July 7, 2021

When you run a business, things don’t always go according to plan. Instead of the plain sailing you expected, suddenly there are shareholder disputes to settle. If you are the director you have certain obligations and the first one is the consult with a commercial lawyer to ensure you take the right road to recover. If you don’t, it is possible to lose the business altogether.

The first thing to be done is to negotiate with the other parties to try and resolve the conflict. If this doesn’t work it can be taken to mediation where a neutral party helps to facilitate the discussion so that the parties can hopefully, resolve the conflict. The mediator has no say in how the parties resolve it or in seeing that the resolution is a fair one.

Where failure to resolve once again occurs the matter then must go to arbitration. The only trouble with this is that the decision for how the resolution should come about is taken out of the director’s hands and even the shareholders will have no say. Very often the company must be wound up and everyone loses out. While the resolution is enforced legally and the judge considers his decision to be the fairest for all concerned, very often the parties are still left unsatisfied with how things were worked out.

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