Szabo & Associates News & Updates

With overseas travel opening up, some parents may have renewed concerns over their child being taken overseas without their consent. 

In NSW, the Succession Act provides that certain people, particularly close family, can contest a deceased’s Will if they have not been properly provided for. As such it is not possible to say that a person can legally prevent their Will from being contested by an ‘eligible’ person.

Taking out a lease on business premises will be one of the most significant decisions that a business needs to take. As such, it is important to understand what is being taken on and properly investigate the property and lease documents before committing.

Following a successful prosecution by the NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), the Eden based excavation and earthmoving contractors John Michelin and Son Pty Ltd, have recently been fined $43550 (Environment Protection Authority v John Michelin Pty Ltd (2019) NSWLEC 88). The NSW Land and Environment Court convicted the company of polluting waters on the State’s southern coast and causing environmental harm to the waterways. The fine will be paid into an environmental project in the Eden area and managed through the Environmental Trust.

A recent article in The Weekend Australian (6 January 2018) described it as “Coonawarra’s great family feud” and “a tale of grapes, and wrath; and of brothers, grim”. A story of an inharmonious interaction between a Will and an established family trust involving a complicated set of circumstances that took years to sort out through the courts. As the court pointed out this was partly caused by the testator’s (will-maker’s) apparent misunderstanding “as to what was and was not legally possible”. This emphasises the importance of utilising lawyers of the experience of Szabo & Associates, Solicitors in matters of Wills and trusts.