Topics: Family law

Often people question whether Binding Financial Agreements are actually binding, or whether they are too easily set aside by a Court to risk relying upon.

In mid 2009, we published a Legal Alert which asked whether Financial Agreements, were “worth the paper they were written on?”. The article looked at the case of Blackmore v Webber in which the Federal Magistrates Court set aside a “pre-nup” on a number of grounds.

The recent story of baby Gammy, allegedly abandoned by an Australian couple after his birth in Thailand as a result of a commercial surrogacy arrangement, has ignited debate about the legality of international surrogacy laws and their application in Australia.

The recent Federal Circuit Court case of Parkes v Parkes [2014] FCCA 102 sheds light on this common practice

In a late night session of parliament in June 2012, Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie announced the Queensland Government’s plans to introduce a Bill to drastically limit Queenslanders’ access to surrogacy to have children. The state had only legalised surrogacy in 2010.

In an era where many families have accumulated substantial wealth through generations of hard work or entrepreneurship, it is becoming increasingly common for family lawyers to be asked by clients (or their relatives) to quarantine their holdings from current spouses and new partners for the benefit of their children and

So you’ve separated and don’t really want your ex-spouse or de facto partner to be able to claim against that house you bought out of your hard-earned savings. After all, you were the one who went to work each day and earned that money. It seems reasonable that you should

Have you been divorced from a former spouse? Were you previously in a de facto relationship that ended? If your answer to either of those questions is ‘yes’, and you never formalised your property settlement with the ex, you might have cause for concern.

During school holiday periods, children frequently have the experience of spending considerably more time than usual with the parent with whom they do not usually live.

Contemplating holiday travel with the kids? Do you have court orders about parenting? Are you paying child support?

Separating from a long-term spouse or de facto partner is considered to be one of the most traumatic events a person can experience. The circumstances giving rise to the separation, which typically include infidelity, physical or emotional abuse, or the partners simply growing apart, can have a profound effect on