Szabo & Associates News & Updates

Eligibility to lodge a family provision claim, where a person feels they have not been adequately provided for from an estate, is limited to some key groups, including children of a deceased person. This means that an estranged adult child who has lost contact with their parent is eligible to contest a Will. However, it does not necessarily mean an application will be successful.

A custody dispute over pet ownership can potentially be a serious source of contention between separating couples. Disputes can even lead to extreme behaviour. In the UK, two recent examples demonstrate just how acrimonious such situations can become. In one case, a property developer was taken to Court by his ex-girlfriend, accused of posing as a dog walker to abduct her cockapoo. Even more disturbingly, a 70-year-old Austrian, Count Konrad Goess-Saurau, was found guilty of shooting dead his wife's German pointer, Herman, while she was away.

Blended families are often described as those where two individuals, each with their own children, re-marry or form a new partnership. They may go on to have more children together. Blended families have become a more common feature of society and accordingly an increasingly important issue for many more people than in the past.

This is the second in a series of articles which will provide you with a better understanding of our family law legal system.  It is our desire that this article has been informative in presenting an overview of our family law legal system. 

While each parent is presumed to have or share in the parental responsibility for a child, this is subject to any Court order to the contrary. Contravening (breaching) such an order is a potentially serious matter. A Court order is legally enforceable, and each person involved must take all reasonable steps to comply.