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

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

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

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?

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

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?

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?

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?

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?

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

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.