by Guthrie Colananni Attorneys | May 26, 2023 | Family Law
More and more couples are opting to live together as permanent life partners rather than enter into a formal marriage. The risk for such couples is that whilst our law is steadily (if slowly and cautiously) extending many of the protections of formal marriage to...
by Guthrie Colananni Attorneys | Apr 24, 2023 | Family Law, Wills and Estate Planning
“It has long been a foundational principle of our common law and the legislation that has governed the law of testamentary succession that a will, properly executed, is the document that authoritatively reflects the genuine and voluntary dispositions of a testatrix.”...
by Guthrie Colananni Attorneys | Oct 26, 2022 | Family Law
“Marriage is a matter of more worth / Than to be dealt in by attorneyship” (Shakespeare) Wedding Season is well and truly upon us, and if you (or anyone near and dear to you) is busy planning for marriage (note that we are talking “civil marriage” here, “customary...
by Guthrie Colananni Attorneys | Jun 27, 2022 | Family Law, Trusts
“Love is grand. Divorce is a hundred grand.” (Anon) That’s a great scenario whilst the marriage prospers, but what happens on divorce? A recent High Court decision addressed one such scenario – Trusts may be formed for a variety of reasons, and the purpose and...
by Guthrie Colananni Attorneys | May 26, 2022 | Family Law
“…the inequality at hand is caused when, after the conclusion of the marriage, a distortion is caused by the fact that one spouse contributes directly or indirectly to the other’s maintenance or the increase of the other’s estate without any quid pro quo.”...
by Guthrie Colananni Attorneys | Mar 29, 2022 | Family Law
“A prodigal is a person who, through some defect of character or will, squanders his or her assets with such abandon that he or she threatens to reduce himself or herself and/or her dependents to destitution” (extract from judgment below) What can you do when someone...