Category: Legal Advice

Violence-Restraining-Orders

Can Police Issue Violence Restraining Orders?

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Legal Advice

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 such as PCLB Criminal 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

Obligation of Directors in Shareholder Disputes

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Business, Legal Advice

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 such as Summers Legal 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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binding-financial-agreement

9 Benefits of a Binding Financial Agreement

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Legal Advice

Many couples think of a Binding Financial Agreement (BFA) as a pre-nup, but it is much more than just that. Usually drawn up by a family lawyer such as Robinson Family Lawyers, a BFA can be entered into at any stage of a relationship; before, during or after a marriage or de-facto relationship is entered into. If you were wondering what benefits such an agreement has, here are some of them.

  • When a BFA is drawn up when a couple are still happy, either before or during a relationship, it is highly likely to contain elements that are reasonable and agreeable to both parties. So if the relationship then fails, there is no need for either party to worry about whether it is fair or just.
  • People these days often go through more than one relationship. It can give a previously divorced person peace of mind that they won’t lose everything should another relationship failure occur.
  • Although a BFA can be made at any time, making one before or during a relationship is less stressful than making one after a breakup.
  • It can reassure the more financially stable party that their partner is not just marrying them for their money.
  • A BFA can be used to lay down ground rules about finances during a relationship. It can specify who will pay specific bills and who will be responsible for certain debts, as well as defining how much and where money should be spent.
  • It is much more cost effective to have a BFA drawn up beforehand than to go to court for settlement afterwards.

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consent-orders

Basic Information about Consent Orders

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Legal Advice

Consent Orders document the agreements reached between two parties who have separated and/or divorced regarding the division of property, spousal maintenance and parenting arrangements for the children. According to Robertson Hayles a family law firm will very likely have been involved in the process, although some couples can reach agreement on their own or through counselling and mediation services.

If  a former couple have reached such an agreement and decided to leave it as an informal arrangement with no Consent Orders, there is the risk that one will not keep to the agreement, changing it to suit themselves in the future. The other party will have no legal recourse to ensure that the agreement is kept.  That is why it is in everyone’s best interests to have the agreement legally verified with Consent Orders.

When an agreement is documented in Consent Orders it becomes a legally binding and enforceable agreement that cannot be changed unless both parties agree to it in a court. A property settlement agreement is also binding if it is documented in a Binding Financial Agreement (BFA). However, parenting agreements can only be documented in Consent Orders.

To do this you have to apply for Consent Orders and have the court approve the agreement you have reached with your ex-partner or ex-spouse. The court will only agree to them if it decides the agreement is fair and equitable for the property division and in the best interests of the child, for the parenting arrangements.

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how-long-does-a-divorce-take

How Long does a Divorce Take?

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Family & Relationships, Legal Advice

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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Right-Advice

How to Find the Right Advice and Guidance for Your Small Business

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Business, Legal Advice

Setting up your own small business may be a dream come true, but if you don’t want it to turn into a nightmare, it is essential to get the right kind of advice and guidance. There are many professionals who can help you from web designers and general internet business consultants, but talking with a good Perth Wills Lawyer should always be one of the first steps. In fact, it is a good idea to keep on with the same lawyers all the time so they become familiar with you and your business and can advise you quickly whenever you need it.

Apart from solicitors, who else can help you in business? Setting up a business can be a complex undertaking and you should never fly solo unless you intend to be a sole trader; even then you’ll likely need an accountant. Here is a list of people you are likely to need for advice and help.

  • Accountants – apart from lawyers, an accountant is the next most important person to have guiding your business. Having an accountant to do your books will save you time and many headaches. An accountant can also advise you on many financial issues from whether your business can afford to expand through to legally paying the least amount of tax possible.
  • Insurance advisors – having a professional insurance advisor – one who doesn’t work for any specific company – will enable you to protect your business from many risks, even those that you haven’t thought about. They can tell you just how much insurance you need as well as what kind.

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Reduce-Stress-of-Divorce

How to Reduce the Stress of Divorce

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Legal Advice

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 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.

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business-contracts

How to Ensure Your Business Contracts are Fair

Posted on All 4 BlogPosted in Business, Legal Advice

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 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 12th November 2016, the law also applies to that.

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