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Rela­tion­ship break downs — how do you sort out maintenance?

So, we have a rela­tion­ship break down – how do we sort the maintenance? It is one of the most chal­leng­ing aspects of fam­i­ly law – who gets what and who owes whom — when a rela­tion­ship breaks down and main­te­nance is being negotiated. Con­sid­er this arti­cle as an overview and check­list to…

If you employ a work­er for a par­tic­u­lar project, can you ter­mi­nate them at the end of that project?

IN BRIEF Today in the world of Aus­tralian prop­er­ty, con­tin­gent work­ers fit the bill. Con­tin­gent work­ers are the free­lancers, or inde­pen­dent pro­fes­sion­als and con­sul­tants, or tem­po­rary con­tract work­ers, who pro­vide their ser­vices to an organ­i­sa­tion on a non-per­ma­nent or con­tract basis. There’s recent­ly been a big increase of fit-outs in res­i­den­tial prop­er­ty across the…

Gov­ern­ment and ATO tight­en laws in rela­tion to sale of prop­er­ty by for­eign residents 

IN BRIEF It’s all about low vol­un­tary com­pli­ance by for­eign res­i­dents who sell Aus­tralian prop­er­ty – and the gov­ern­ment is tight­en­ing tax laws to shift the com­pli­ance bur­den on cer­tain trans­ac­tions. It’s com­plex – and it comes into effect on 1 July 2016. In this arti­cle, Daniel Ken­twell addressess how the…

Inno­va­tion it’s in our DNA 

I always remem­ber our founder, the late Fred Swaab, talk­ing about being at the bleed­ing edge. He was a man who looked ahead to the next step, always chal­leng­ing him­self, and those along­side him, to find bet­ter ways to do things. Fred want­ed to be right out in front – at that…

Top Ten Tips for Land­lord Leasing 

This arti­cle con­tains some use­ful tips and insights on mat­ters of impor­tance for land­lord leas­ing. The infor­ma­tion is gen­er­al in nature and does not take into account any per­son­al circumstances.  Get your com­mer­cial terms in order The doc­u­ment which sets out the agreed com­mer­cial terms of a lease has sev­er­al dif­fer­ent names…

The ABCs of Child Support

Child sup­port is a pay­ment made by one par­ent to the oth­er to assist him or her to meet the expens­es of rais­ing their child/​children. The leg­is­la­tion pro­vides that par­ents of a child/​children have a duty to main­tain the child/​children. This applies even if one par­ent is not present­ly spend­ing time with the…

What hap­pens when spous­es split a busi­ness? 6 pos­si­ble scenarios

The ​‘clean break’ principle The Fam­i­ly Court’s posi­tion is that when­ev­er pos­si­ble, there should be a clean break between ex-spous­es. This means a prop­er­ty set­tle­ment, with the com­bined asset pool being bro­ken into two chunks. When the assets include a busi­ness, the prop­er­ty split can take place in a num­ber of ways.1. Val­ue of the…

Being impar­tial on par­tial prop­er­ty settlements

Com­menc­ing Fam­i­ly Court pro­ceed­ings can be daunt­ing – not only because it’s an emo­tion­al time in your life, but because of the high legal fees that can result from what can be a long and drawn out process. You might won­der, how will I be able to pay for a car, or replace­ment fur­ni­ture…

Who needs a statu­to­ry will?

In Brief In a pre­vi­ous arti­cle, we exam­ined how statu­to­ry wills are able to be used for asset pro­tec­tion and tax min­imi­sa­tion pur­pos­es. In this arti­cle, we out­line the types of peo­ple for whom an appli­ca­tion for a statu­to­ry will might be made and then con­sid­er the pre­vail­ing issue of tes­ta­men­tary capac­i­ty…

The future and HR — the oth­er side of the worm-hole

Recent­ly, we host­ed a sem­i­nar on the Future of HR and heard from two experts in the field about their expe­ri­ence and thoughts on the rapid­ly trans­form­ing work­place and their pre­dic­tions for the future.  That night we slipped trhough the worm-hole to reveal what a thriv­ing HR pro­fes­sion­al will look like in the…

The deceit of the pol­i­cy manual

“Those are my prin­ci­ples, and if you don’t like them… well, I have oth­ers.” — Grou­cho Marx As an HR pro­fes­sion­al, you val­ue your integri­ty, right? With­out that, your cred­i­bil­i­ty with staff dis­ap­pears. A core aspect of integri­ty is hon­esty — if your word can­not be relied upon, then you lose the trust…

The per­ils of mis­lead­ing your prospec­tive employees

INTRO­DUC­TIONThere are few court deci­sions which deal with dam­ages claims by employ­ees lured into new employ­ment by prospec­tive employ­ers’ assur­ances, and who suf­fer loss when things do not go accord­ing to plan. How­ev­er a deci­sion of the Fed­er­al Court of Aus­tralia hand­ed down in April 2016 in Rakic v Johns Lyng Insur­ance Build­ing…

Pro­ceed­ings under the Fair Work Act Is the Fair Work Com­mis­sion real­ly a cost free jurisdiction?

Com­mon ques­tions asked by par­ties in unfair dis­missal claims are ​“will I get my costs back if I win?” and ​“will I have to pay the oth­er side’s costs if I lose?” The default posi­tion is ​“no”. Under the Fair Work Act (the Act) each par­ty usu­al­ly pays its own legal costs in unfair…

Abuse of Power

In Brief In an impor­tant deci­sion for peo­ple con­sid­er­ing their estate plan, the Supreme Court of New South Wales has recent­ly reit­er­at­ed the lim­its on an attor­ney’s abil­i­ty to use a pow­er to ben­e­fit them­self. But even with this pro­tec­tion, the case high­lights the need for peo­ple to care­ful­ly con­sid­er who…

Attack­ing IP infringers — look before you leap

Intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty may be the most valu­able asset your busi­ness pos­sess­es. It is there­fore wise to be on guard against infringers who seek to dilute or steal that intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty. How­ev­er, before fir­ing a shot at infringers, it is impor­tant to put your own ducks pre­cise­ly in a row.Iden­ti­fy­ing ownership Before issu­ing a let­ter…