Family Law

• The legal wife, the de facto wife and the deceased estate – which case won?

  10th Aug 2023

  What happens after a man who led a double life dies? The deceased’s will assigned all of his property, worth $230,812, to his de facto wife. His legal wife took action and his de facto wife appealed. Elizabeth Hull of Stacks Law Firm provides expert commentary on the Court of Appeal's ultimate decision. 

• Migration law and the best interests of the child

  5th May 2022

  Abdullah and Fatima fled Afghanistan with their children after a Taliban attack killed their daughter and destroyed their home. While Abdullah has permanent refugee status in Australia, Fatima and their four children have been waiting for their family visa to be processed for more than four years. The family has now launched legal action against the Morrison government, claiming an unreasonable delay. John Bui examines the case through the lens of family law. 

• Is the Hague Convention on child abduction harming women?

  20th Jan 2022

  Women trying to leave abusive relationships and return home with their children are being blocked by the threat of Hague proceedings. When it was signed in 1980, this international treaty was intended to protect mothers and children, but now it's being used as 'legal weapon' against them, writes Anneka Frayne, calling for change.

• If a person with a secret second family dies, who inherits their estate?

  2nd Dec 2021

  When a marriage celebrant leaves his first wife in New Zealand and marries a second in Australia, and then a third, he receives a 6-month suspended sentence for bigamy — illegal in Australia, but more common than most of us realise. Joshua Crowther discusses this legal quandary. 

• Gender dysphoria in Australia: The judicial response in Re Kelvin

  21st Feb 2019

  Greg McAllister discusses the case of Re Kelvin and its implications for Australian minors with gender dysphoria who wish to commence hormone therapy. 

• Maternal rights must be recognised for the sake of children

  5th Jul 2018

  Anna Kerr and Darelle Duncan discuss the move in NSW towards an increase in permanent adoption from foster care placements, and the negative implications this will have for children's welfare and maternal rights.

• Using peace to resolve family law conflict

  5th May 2016

  The irony of litigating family matters is that parties are effectively using litigation to counter and respond to family conflict. But rather than working as a conflict resolution tool, litigation actually extends the conflict, and perpetuates further conflict. Yet somehow this negative plus negative response is meant to achieve a positive result. 

• Moving beyond legalistic responses in family law

  18th Mar 2016

  Domestic and family violence (D&FV) is a heinous, and omnipresent epidemic in Australia. D&FV is more than physical violence. It is actual and threatened behaviour, and behaviour which is used to incite fear. It is coercive and controlling in nature, and includes emotional, psychological, economic, sexual, social, property, and family abuse. It is insidious and has no boundaries. No social group is immune from attack.