Family Law

What is a trust? A trust is a legal obligation or arrangement by which a person, known as the trustee, uses his or her legal position as trustee to benefit the “objects” of the trust.  The objects are referred to by most people as the “beneficiaries”.  The trustee is like Santa Claus and he can distribute presents to whoever he chooses as long as they are one of the beneficiaries…

The Family Law Act (or Family Court Act for unmarried couples) is a large piece of legislation. The core sections of note are: Married Persons (Family Law Act) Section 72     Spouse Maintenance Section 75     Spouse Maintenance and Property Division Section 79     Property Division Unmarried Persons (Family Court Act) Section 205 ZC Section 205 ZD Section 205 ZG For many years the Courts distilled from Section 79 (Section 205 ZG Family…

How are they dealt with? Problem For many reasons there are often long delays between a family separation and final resolution. Circumstances usually change in the interim, sometimes for the better and sometimes not. The problem lies in the fact that when the Family Court looks at division of property it generally considers the financial situation as at the date of trial, not the date of separation. So, what if…

Introduction Proceedings in the Family Court can be slow and are almost always costly. Therefore, the possibility of quickly dismissing the other party’s case is attractive. Frivolous or Vexatious Proceedings Section 118 of the Family Law Act contains the following provision: (1)     In proceedings under this Act the court hearing the proceedings may at any stage of the proceedings if it is satisfied that the proceedings are frivolous or vexatious…

A reliable rule of thumb is that until there is a legally enforceable settlement, any money or property received after separation will be taken into account by the Court when dividing property. One example is a lotto win. A lotto win might be hard to imagine because they are so rare. However, include in that category inheritances, asset value increases through booms and rezoning. All of a sudden we are…