When a marriage breaks down it is important to consider how you will deal with this legally. There are several crucial components to permanently ending the relationship, including the separation/divorce itself, ongoing care for children, and financial/property settlements.

The National Redress Scheme (NRS) is a Commonwealth Government initiative which provides a range of support to adult survivors of child sexual abuse. In this Guide we explain:

Have you been named the executor of a Will? Or, are you preparing your Will and wondering who to appoint as your executor? Here we set out what the role of ‘executor’ really means, what you need to do if you are appointed as the executor, and when it may be useful to seek the advice of a Wills and Estate lawyer.

Parenting plans and child support agreements are two mechanisms available to parents on the breakdown of a marriage or de facto relationship. They allow the parents to set out the child support arrangements, going forward.

On the breakdown of a marriage, it is essential to sort out the financial matters as quickly as possible. Primarily, this means coming to an agreement about how the property of the relationship is to be separated and distributed between the spouses. But it also involves working out whether there should be any ongoing payments from one of the spouses/former spouses to the other. These are known as ‘spousal maintenance’ payments.

When a marriage ends, it is important that both spouses (‘the parties’) try to come to an agreement about how their property is to be divided between them. This is known as a ‘property settlement’. Here we set out the rules that apply to property settlement after divorce in Australia, as well as the rules that apply on the breakdown of a de facto relationship.

Child sexual abuse often has devastating and lifelong consequences for survivors. The National Redress Scheme is a system that has been set up for supporting adult survivors of child sexual abuse in an institution (such as a church or school).

Child sexual abuse often results in a range of thought processes and emotions in adult survivors, which can be important to identify either in yourself or in others, when abuse has occurred.

Sometimes, following the death of a loved one, you may be upset about the amount that was left for you in the Will. Or, you may not have been left anything at all, and consider this unfair. In these situations, you may be able to ‘contest’ the Will, otherwise known as making a ‘family provision’ claim.

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a substantial effect on family life, including arrangements for the care of children. In this post, we summarise best practice for separated parents in dealing with parenting and childcare arrangements, including parenting orders.