A private member’s bill,[1] which is to be heard when Parliament sits in October, proposes to remove the Family Law Act presumption of equal shared parental responsibility and the court’s associated consideration of equal time or substantial and significant time with...
What happened to the Edwards family? In 2016, Olga Edwards, the mother to two teenage children; Jennifer and Jack, left John Edwards, the children’s father, and initiated family law proceedings. An Independent Children’s Lawyer was appointed on behalf of the children....
What is BWS? Battered woman syndrome (‘BWS’) is a well-known psychological condition that was first introduced in the 1970s to describe the altered mental state of victims of family violence. BWS ordinarily develops in women who have been victims of long-term...
In 2012, a 21 year old Chinese woman was beaten to death by her mother-in-law who wanted her son to divorce the woman and marry another woman for a $500,000 dowry. In 2014, an Indian man murdered his wife in front of their young son and later took his own life,...
The Women’s Legal Service say that it is not. A client of mine recently left her husband of 15 years with her three young children, after he came to bed with a knife, having had one of his regular five bottle binges. Despite this horrendous event she was still...
The use of corporal punishment in response to problem behaviour in children is an age-old practice that is still often resorted to by modern parents. Its pervasiveness is reflected in our legal system- in every jurisdiction in Australia, there is a defence to conduct...
