The Family Law Handbook, 3E now features a more cohesive treatment of family law issues arising from family violence and child abuse including comprehensive and clear coverage of the new set of changes to Australian family law which came into effect with the commencement of the Family Law Legislation Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) Act 2011.
The 2011 amendments also introduced important changes to the 'best interests' considerations for the granting of parenting orders. The third edition digests these and other important changes in parenting case law since 2009, including the case of Marvel which updated the earlier 'landmark' case of Goode on the application of the 'presumption of parental responsibility'. A ready-reference summary of the 2011 amendments is set out in Chapter 1. Since the second edition in 2009, case law on de facto relationships - in parenting and property matters as well as in recognition of the relationship for family law purposes - has evolved significantly.
The new edition highlights significant new cases in this area such as Keaton v Aldridge (2009) which considered whether separate households were a particular bar to the existence of a de facto relationship under the law; and Jonah v White (2011), in which the court decided that the 'absence of essential couple-dom' mitigated against the existence of a de facto relationship that had existed for 17 years outside the marriage of one of the parties. Case law has developed significantly also in the areas of functional parenting and surrogacy, and importantly, in the process at court. Electronic filing also included - the book fully caters for the proliferation/development of information and services via the web and links/website addresses are noted throughout. The third edition also explores jurisdictional variances in greater detail - for example, in 2011, a Victorian court circumvented the same-sex prohibition to adoption - to an extent - by upholding the existence of the requisite 'special circumstances' to permit an adoption order in favour of a single person (who happened to be in a long-term, same-sex relationship): AB and VEOHRC and Separate Representative of J (2011).
While maintaining its easy to use/clear and simple approach, significant legislative and case changes are included to assist those working in or around the family law system.
