Why And How You Can Legally Adopt Someone Who Is Aged 18 Years Or Older

by Family Law

When most people think about adoption, they most likely have images in their minds of family lawyers in court extolling the virtues of the parents who wish to adopt a young child. Unarguably, that is going to be the most common scenario, however, were you aware that adoption can also occur when the person being adopted is over 18 years of age?

You will note we said “person” and not “child” because legally anyone over the age of 18 is usually classed as an adult, however, that does not mean that they cannot be adopted. We have to mention first that the rules and laws relating to adopting adults vary from state to state so we highly recommend that you seek the advice of a family lawyer should adult adoption be something you are considering, whether you are the potential adopter or adoptee.

At the time of writing, some states in Australia do not have legislation that allows for adult adoption, or at best would only allow it if a special petition were raised with the Courts. Again we stress the importance of seeking advice from family lawyers to ascertain whether the adoption laws in the state where you reside are such that adult adoption is legally possible.

3 Actions That Dentists Can Take To Avoid A Patient Instigating Court Proceedings

3 Actions That Dentists Can Take To Avoid A Patient Instigating Court Proceedings

by Legal Advice

For all the dentists who own a dental practice, thankfully, very few things would create an existential threat to your business. One could be not taking steps to market your dental practice to attract new patients and that business then suffering a decline until its demise. Another might be your landlord suddenly deciding that they want the commercial building your dental practice leases for another purpose.

There is a third way in which your dental practice might be under threat: if a patient decides to start legal action against you. There can be many reasons they might do so such as treatment not working, an accident occurring while they are on your premises, or feeling discriminated against in some way.

Before going any further, we are not for one second suggesting that you or those working in your dental practice would ever act in a way to cause these to occur. However, not every legal case instigated is justified, and you would not be the first dentist who has been sued for nefarious reasons by a disgruntled patient who has more money than sense or morals.

What You Can Do If You Are Served With A Restraining Order

What You Can Do If You Are Served With A Restraining Order

by Criminal Law

When someone has been the victim of harassment, inappropriate behaviour, or violence, they can apply to the police or to a court for a restraining order. Restraining orders are matters that criminal lawyers have to deal with. both in representing the person applying for them, and for clients who are subject to one, and who may wish to appeal against it.

The basics of a restraining order are that they can help prevent someone from committing unacceptable or even criminal acts against another individual, by putting in place limits with respect to what they are allowed to do.

There are three forms of restraining order which exist, and these can be applied depending on the nature of the unwanted or inappropriate behaviour which is taking place. The three types are a Family Violence Restraining Order (FVRO), a Violence Restraining Order (VRO), and a Misconduct Restraining Order (MRO).

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Is Compulsory Rehabilitation The Way To Defeat Drug Crime?

by Criminal Law

Millions of words have been written and thousands of hours of discussion have taken place in relation to drug crime, drug use, drug addiction such as ice addiction and the solutions to them. Within those, there will subjects raised such as drug rehab, decriminalisation, legalisation, drug therapies and countless others which all seem a way of reducing dependency on drugs and the crimes which are committed both in regard to selling drugs and as a result of someone taking drugs.

As you will no doubt be aware, as yet no one solution has been put into action in any part of the world which has successfully eradicated the use and the supply of illegal drugs. That includes both those countries where the penalty for breaking drug laws is extreme, and also those where the attitude to drugs is one where decriminalisation is the norm. It seems neither the hard-line approach nor the softer approach is entirely effective.

When looking at some of the specific solutions that have been tried, one has received considerable attention, and for which there are multiple studies relating to it, is forced rehabilitation. This is a bit of a hybrid approach which combines giving an individual the opportunity to go into drug rehabilitation, but instead of them doing it voluntarily, they are forced to do so, with the alternative being them sent to prison.

5 Negotiating Tips That Can Help You Achieve The Best Outcome

5 Negotiating Tips That Can Help You Achieve The Best Outcome

by Commercial Law

There are those who would say the art of business is really the art of negotiation, and when you think of the number of scenarios where a business owner might be negotiating each day, it is close to the truth. Be it trying to get a lower price from a supplier, discussing a contentious legal matter with your commercial lawyer, and or resolving an employee dispute, negotiations are happening all the time with lawyers from www.lawyerslist.com.au.

Following that logic and considering the literally hundreds of situations where negotiating a good outcome can enhance the success of your business, it is obvious that being a competent and skillful negotiator is essential. Obviously, in larger businesses there will be a number of employees who might have to negotiate as part of their role, so ensuring they are skilled and trained accordingly is also necessary.

Negotiations can take place for all kinds of reasons, with some being positive such as negotiating a large order contract with a new client, or the expansion of the company to new locations. Others are not so much fun, such as legal disputes and employee grievances. Some will take more time than others, and for more serious ones that may ultimately end up in court, the costs can be massive.

With that latter example where a court hearing might potentially be where the dispute is resolved, it is obviously in the interests of the business that it can be settled before it reaches that stage. This is where your negotiating skills and possibly those of your commercial lawyer may need to come to the fore in order to prevent a costly court case.

Does Your Law Firm Need SEO?

Does Your Law Firm Need SEO?

by Law Firm Management

The need to ensure a regular stream of new clients is one which law firms in every part of the country have to consider, and given legal professionals are experts on law, rather than marketing it can mean they do not know how. Thankfully, there are those who do, such as the SEO experts at www.seoperthexperts.com.au who can ensure your law firm’s website gets lots of visitors, who will often become your new clients.

The way they do this is by maximising the amount of online traffic that comes to your website from search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. This is achieved by implementing an SEO plan which helps ensure that your website appears at the top of the search engines whenever someone types in a search.

This SEO plan will require research, not just with regards to your law firm but also your local competitors, plus it requires a huge amount of knowledge and experience of how the search engines rank websites so that each element of the plan maximises the chances of your website ranking well.


Now, you might already have traffic from online sources via paid advertising, and if you are, then congratulations, Paid advertising can be an effective source of traffic, but it is not the only one, and there are many ways in which SEO traffic is more beneficial as you are about to discover.

Can A Child Choose Which Parent They Live With

At What Age Can A Child Choose Which Parent They Live With?

by Family Law

With any divorce where there are children involved, there are bound to be dozens of questions that each parent will be asking their own individual divorce lawyer.

There will be questions about who the children live with primarily, as well as those related to visitation, child support, and other aspects of their upbringing. In most cases, as a result of the Family Law Act, it will be assumed that each parent has equal and shared responsibility for their children.

This means that although the children might live day to day with their mother, both she and their father will be expected to discuss and agree on any of the major decisions that need to be made on behalf of their children.

These decisions will include which school they attend, anything relating to their health, including major procedures, their education with regards to religion and culture, plus other matters like them travelling overseas.

Unfair Dismissal

Under What Circumstances Can I Make a Case for Unfair Dismissal?

by Employment Law

Australian employment laws are quite tough, which means that employees are well protected against unfair dismissal. Basically, the law requires that an employer complies with the terms of your contract when terminating your employment. If a contract hasn’t been signed, there are a few umbrella rules that have to be followed.

On top of this, it’s illegal to fire someone based on their gender, race, ethnicity or any other discriminatory factor. Employers who fire someone in a way that could be considered discrimination could be subject to major legal action.

In the rest of this article, we’ve looked at some of the most popular forms of unfair dismissal and what you should do if your employment has been terminated illegally.

What Is Unfair Dismissal?

To put it simply, unfair dismissal refers to any situation when an employee feels that they’ve been unfairly released from employment or forced to resign due to their employers actions. All unfair dismissal cases are heard by the Fair Work Commission in Australia. Some of the most common example include:

  • When you’ve been fired abruptly without serious consideration of the consequences. In recent years, a lot of unfair dismissal cases are centered on an employee’s social media conduct.
  • If you’ve been fired due to poor performance or issues with your work that you weren’t aware of. A company needs to ensure you’re aware of problems and give you the opportunity to fix them before dismissing you.
  • Dismissal due to racial or religious prejudices, although these claims often fall under discrimination laws.
Does Your Law Firm Need Digital Marketing?

Does Your Law Firm Need Digital Marketing?

by Law Firm Management

If you have been thinking of ways in which you could increase the number of clients your law firm has, hopefully, you will have considered digital marketing as one of the ways that can be achieved. As the digital marketing experts point out, marketing online provides businesses so many options and benefits so let us take a look at some of them.

You Have a Multitude of Choices

One of digital marketing’s biggest appeals is that it offers a broad range of options for businesses. Within the realm of digital marketing there are numerous marketing platforms, methods, and opportunities, meaning that every business can have a marketing plan and strategy that fits with their specific needs.

Some of the digital marketing options you have include:

  • Social Media: Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others are where many of your potential clients will visit every day, and where you can build your brand and online presence.
  • Pay Per Click (PPC): For those with a budget for paid advertising, you can have ads set up and running within 24 hours and start seeing traffic coming to your website almost immediately.
  • SEO: Imagine the difference it would make to your law firm if its website were to appear at the top of Google and other search engines whenever someone in your local area was searching for a lawyer or legal representation.
  • Video Marketing: Video now plays a huge role in digital marketing for the simple reason that those who use the internet watch videos as their number one way of learning, entertainment, and most importantly, research, when they are looking for products and services.
  • Content Marketing: By providing useful and interesting content online you make a connection with people and that connection is what has the potential to turn them from mere browsers into paying clients.
  • Email Marketing: One of the oldest, but also one of the most effective marketing strategies that still work, and which, for some of the top digital marketer’s in the world, is still the number one way to market online.
Cohabitation Agreements

5 Legal Considerations You Should Keep In Mind When Starting A Business

by Commercial Law

Starting a new business is a big step in anyone’s life. For most people, it involves significant financial outlay, huge time commitments and, when it’s not done right, a lot of stress. Thankfully, there are some things that you can do to streamline the process and make things easier on yourself.

For one, you can speak to a commercial lawyer to make sure that you’re taking into account your legal obligations. These vary according to the type of business you’re building and how you’re planning on running it. But, I’ve outlined a few important things that you should keep in mind in this article. They include:

  1. Your business structure

It’s very important to think carefully about what sort of business you want to run and how you want to structure it. Different business structures come with different tax structures, liability levels, and ongoing control. Common business structures in Australia include:

  • Sole trader, where you’re personally liable for your business and its income is reported as part of your tax return.
  • Partnership, which is similar to a sole trader, but which involves the profits and losses of the business being shared between two or more people.
  • Trust, which involves a third party being in control of the business.
  • Company, which is a separate legal entity and which declares its own income for taxation purposes.
Starting A Business

What Are Cohabitation Agreements And Are They Useful?

by Family Law

Choosing to move in with your significant other is a big step, even if you’re not married. Problems can pop up, and it’s important to protect yourself against them, even if you don’t think they will arise. Speaking to lawyers can help you ensure that all your bases are covered, but I will run through one important document in this article – the cohabitation agreement.

What is a cohabitation agreement?

Cohabitation agreements are legal documents that protect both couple members from unnecessary legal and financial complications if their relationship breaks down. Without an agreement, a broken de facto relationship can become messy to the point where it’s often treated like a divorce.

Fortunately, cohabitation agreements allow couples to live together in much the same way as married couples without many complications. They let couples apply for mortgages, get joint bank accounts, and make important life decisions together without too much risk.

In many ways, a cohabitation agreement is like a prenuptial agreement, allowing each member of the couple to protect their assets and their finances.

Divorce and Insurance

Insurance Policies and Divorce & What You Need to Know

by Family Law

One topic couples often forget according to Davies & Co Lawyers is when making the decision to end a marriage are the insurance policies they owned or purchased during the marriage.  In the upheaval of a divorce, child custody issues, choosing a family lawyer and property division, it’s important to remember these important assets.  Each party should look carefully at the cash value of the policies and who are designated as beneficiaries.

What type of policies should you be looking for?

Health and Life Insurance:  The most important are life and health insurance because they are the policies most commonly involved in child support and alimony orders from the court.

Disability:  A close second in importance is disability insurance, although it’s less commonly a part of a divorce order.

Homeowners:  Homeowners (sometimes known as “hazard” or “liability”) insurance, as well as renter’s insurance, is important to account for because it safeguards the parties residences which are often the major assets in a divorce.

Automobile:  Finally, auto insurance is not only required by every state but also important to maintain as vehicles also become important in a division of assets.

A few definitions may also help when reading a policy:

Insured Party: this is the person whose life or property is the subject of an insurance policy.

Policy Owner: this is the person who owns the policy, and not necessarily the insured party.  An example might be parents who own a life insurance policy on a child.  The policy owner is the parent and the child is the insured.

Divorce Proceedings

Stressed over Divorce Proceedings?

by Family Law

Seek Assistance from Experienced lawyers

Divorce can be difficult to cope with both emotionally and financially and this is especially true if your partner was the dominant one who organised and handled everything in general. As top family lawyers Robertson Hayles suggest, opting for legal guidance can help you feel confident and empowered in the traumatic consequences of divorce. Each divorce is associated with its own unique challenges and some of the most common ones include financial settlements, custody of children, parenting orders, custody of pets and settlement of property.

It is probably a good idea to invest in affordable legal services to help resolve your problems instead of haggling over a few dollars here and there. In many cases, divorce tends to affect women more than men as career takes second place for many after marriage. Even when you get back to work after a few years, you may have missed many important career opportunities. Therefore, women often tend to be secondary bread winners. However, even if you have been in control of your career and finances, divorce proceedings prove to be expensive and whittle away at your hard-earned savings and monies.

Partnership Agreement

Potential Legal Implications with Partnership Agreements?

by Commercial Law

Water-Tight Contracts can help protect you from Unexpected Litigation

Written agreements are crucial to the success and future of every type of business. Regardless of whether it’s a local business or a large international corporation, legal business contracts can help enforce court action. Commercial lawyers like Rowe Bristol are trained to help a broad spectrum of clients with formulation of tracts, negotiation and protection from litigation. Seeking legal advice can help ensure that the commercial agreement covers every potential situation and challenge. Whether it’s a one-page agreement or a complex contract involving several pages, corporate lawyers can help formulate agreements that are clear-cut, purposeful and comprehensive.

Commercial lawyers offer a wide range of services that involve protecting their clients from exposure to risk. Some common services offered include:

  • Offering professional guidance with regard to business agreements covering agency, franchise , distribution, hire purchase or lease, vendor-business agreements and purchase/sale of goods and services and so on
Cost of Divorce

Reduce the Costs of a Divorce

by Family Law

Experienced family lawyers can help make the emotionally and financially draining process of divorce easier on you and your loved ones. Divorce is granted on different grounds including adultery, abuse, cruelty and so on and may also be granted on a ‘no fault’ basis. However, Australian courts may often require the spouses to live apart for a specific period before the marriage is legally dissolved. A reliable divorce lawyer proves useful while determining if your partner is at fault by examining the circumstances of the divorce. If the fault is proved, you may be entitled to higher levels of spousal support.

In certain cases, the marriage may not have been legally recorded, or the spouses may have overlooked important details. In such cases, the divorce lawyer will help you understand if annulling or voiding the marriage is a simpler solution than applying for a divorce. It’s helpful to discuss these aspects with your lawyer as you can gain insights into the best options available to you. Divorce proceedings are often driven by irrational behaviour, unreasonable demands and poor communication which makes it an expensive and lengthy process. You lawyer can help you understand the pros and cons of decisions by explaining important issues. This could include child custody, spousal support, division of shared assets and so on. You will be in a position to make rational decisions based on mutual convenience for short and long term.

Family Law Act

Legal Complexities and Problems of Part VII of the Family Law Act

by Family Law

Part VII of the Family Law Act provides that it is impossible for a child to have more than two parents. Both the Commonwealth and State laws do not contain specific clarifications on the issue in question. To that end, it is essential to explore how the judges approach this problem. Specifically speaking, the court in Groth & Banks ascertained that the fact that a child has two parents who are his or her biological progenitors permeates the language of the Act.[1]

The primacy of biology in the ascertainment of who is a child’s parents has been displaced for many years by reason of various State and Commonwealth laws reacting to the challenges of artificial reproductive technology. However, it is also pointed out that the language of Part VII provides an insufficient recognition of the realities of certain modern families. Possible complexities and questionable matters may arise in cases where children are born from an assisted conception procedure. The issue of whether it is in the best interests of the child to spend time with a person is separate from the legal recognition of that individual as a parent.

Criminal Offence

2 Elements of Criminal Offence

by Criminal Law

The advice of criminal lawyers should be sought in any case where a serious offence has been committed. Even if the crime was not a serious one, having a lawyer to advise you will ensure the best result can be obtained. Most lawyers will tell you there are two elements to any criminal offence.

Prohibited conduct. This includes such things as robbing a bank, murder, assault and so on. Most people understand that there are certain types of conduct that will cause harm to others and that are against the law. Anyone who performs such conduct must be punished. If you do get charged with assault or another serious crime, you will need an experienced lawyer/ However, that brings us to the second element.

The mental element of a guilty mind or intention to commit the offence. The same offence, criminal lawyers say can be committed by a person without the intention and they can get off without punishment. For instance, if you struck someone accidentally, you would not be guilty of assault because the element of intention to strike was not there. Furthermore, if you acted in self defence, that would give you a lawful excuse for the action so you may not be charged, or punished, even if you did hit them.

Surrogacy-Law

Surrogacy and Parentage Under the Family Law Act

by Family Law

Surrogacy and parentage constitute two facets of Australia’s Family Law Act that require additional clarification, interpretation or possible reconsideration. To start with, specific sections of the Family Law Act are proposed to regulate various matters related to surrogacy and recognition, such as the recognition of parental status stemming from the use of surrogacy, etc. However, the wording of the statutory provisions does not always make it clear whether a certain part of the Act has application to a particular surrogacy related matter. In this connection, it is often vital to have recourse to case law.

The conventional definition of surrogacy under Australian case law is that it is an arrangement whereby a woman, the surrogate mother, consents to bear a child for another individual or couple. There is a wide range of legal forms of surrogacy under Australian law. Thus, ‘genetic’ or ‘partial’ surrogacy pertains to the engagement of the surrogate mother’s egg and the intended father’s sperm. On the other hand, ‘gestational’ or ‘full’ surrogacy means agreements whereby the surrogate mother does not provide her own genetic material for the purpose of conception.

Estate Plan

Getting Your First Estate Plan Set Up

by Estate Planning

Estate plans are often used in place of wills, as they provide a more flexible and comprehensive arrangement when it comes to dealing with your assets after your death. Many people don’t realise how important and beneficial estate plans can be, and therefore simply ignore them. However, setting up an estate plan could be a good idea for you and your family. Speak to an estate planning lawyer today to find out how you can set up your first estate plan.

Step 1: Find Help

The first thing to do when it comes to estate planning is to find help from an estate planning lawyer. This will allow you to easily navigate all of the complexities and intricacies of drafting your first estate plan. A good legal professional will make sure that you don’t leave out important information, and will help you develop a plan which benefits your family as much as possible.

Step 2: Draft Your Plan

Drafting your first estate plan is probably the most difficult step, and it needs to be done with the help of an estate planning or wills  lawyer. High quality estate plans will cover every aspect of your life, and will closely detail what happens to your assets after you die.

Protective Order

Two Ugly Words: Protective Order

by Family Law

One of the most common requests among family lawyers is the demand a protective order.  The reasons are as diverse and colourful as you can imagine.  Often, a spouse wants to retaliate against the other after being served with papers.  Sometimes, papers aren’t even filed yet, and a spouse discovers infidelity, financial problems, etc.  The critical thing to remember is that just because you want one doesn’t mean a court will grant a protective order.

Some Housekeeping Items:

There are many different flavours of ‘restraining’ or ‘protective’ orders, and it’s important to distinguish between them because each has different requirements and consequences, and you don’t want to argue for something you don’t want or need.

Let’s focus on the most common type of divorce order: Emergency Protective Orders.  This is a legal document that protects a victim of abuse who is also in a close relationship to the abuser.  Who can get a protective order?  Jurisdictions vary, but in general, you must satisfy the following requirements: