Szabo & Associates News & Updates

The process of separation is difficult. It is often a time when emotions and conflict are at their highest.

Section 128(1) of the uniform Evidence Acts applies where a witness objects to giving particular evidence that "may tend to prove" that the witness has committed an offence under Australian or foreign law or is liable to a civil penalty. It contains a version of the common law privilege against self-incrimination which entitles a person to refuse to answer a question or produce a document if the answer or production would tend to incriminate that person. If the court determines that there are reasonable grounds for the objection, the Court is obliged to give the witness a certificate which prevents the evidence from being used against the witness in any proceedings in an Australian court. A certificate is, for example, sometimes sought to protect a client from charges of tax fraud.

Pets can be important to families, and disputes over the family pet in separations appear to be becoming more common. However, in Australia, the Courts have only limited capacity to deal with pets with no legislation for guidance though legal precedent has been established with several cases.

Background

The blog How “Final” Are Final Parenting Orders? (November 2017) considered the ruling in Rice & Asplund, concerning final parenting orders, and how “final” such orders may actually be. The Full Court of the Family Court recently had cause to consider the position in a differing set of circumstances where parents with equal shared parental responsibility were in dispute over the schooling of one of their children, in the case of Cameron & Brook.

Background

The recent case of Commissioner of Taxation v Tomaras (2018) raised both constitutional and family law issues. It considered whether, in property settlement proceedings, the Court has the power to order that a (bankrupt) husband be substituted for his (former) wife with regard to the tax debts owed by her so that he became solely liable.