Category: Legal Services

Most often, people stay stuck in a bad marriage because they do not recognize the signs of a bad marriage and most people often feel obliged to stay irrespective of how abusive their partner is and how bad they feel on a daily basis. Some of the signs of a bad marriage include constantly having to deal with passive and aggressive behaviour and having fear at expressing yourself to your partner. Abuse does not always have to be physical abuse. Many people in marriage experience verbal abuse and it is important for you to know the signs of abuse.

Getting out

If you are unhappy in your marriage and you feel trapped, you are going to want to talk to the family lawyer Sydney to find out what you will need to do in order to get a divorce. If you believe that there is a chance that you might be able to work things out, you can talk to your partner and perhaps seek counselling. There have been times when this has worked for couples and they have managed to work out their differences because sometimes, it can be difficult to discuss issues without having a professional present.

If however you find out that there is no way out, you will have to meet with divorce lawyers Sydney to find out the correct detailed procedure to getting a divorce and to ask for the process. There will be a lot that you will need to learn and discuss before you go to court. Divorce has a reputation of being messy and ugly with many long drawn months of problems but this is not always the case.Your lawyer will then advise you about what you and your partner will need to sort out before the divorce in order to avoid problems.

The best way to settle a divorce is to sort things out among yourselves outside of court so that there is no fighting and ugliness. If you have property that you share, you will need to decide how the property is going to be divided and if you have children, you will need to make a decision on who is going to get custody and if you are going to share custody, how you will divide the child’s time among yourselves. It is important that you try to get your child involved in this decision if he or she is old enough instead of making decisions on your child’s behalf.

It is common to see the majority of small businesses first start out as sole proprietorships – mostly because the startup costs and formalities are lower. Yet these business structures often later merge into partnerships or co-operations due to reasons such as shared responsibility or chances to increase profits or goals. Part-time business owners often start out this way too, especially if they have a regular occupation.

Are You Just Starting Out?
As mentioned above, small starter businesses find it easier to set-up a sole proprietorship. Of course finding the right kind of business partner can help you create a partnership easily, than taking a risk being the sole owner.  Starter businesses will generally have issues at the initial stage that you will have to deal with – but the profits will go to one person and you can change the business structure easily when necessary.

Consider The Pros and Cons
While starter costs are lower, the tax return is the same as an individual tax – which might be a hindrance for a starter business that is only starting to make profits. While the business owner retains full control and privacy, the liability and risk is higher for sole business owners.  Business dealings will need to be carefully when starting out, with lower financial risks. It can also be hard to raise capital for a sole proprietorship when compared with a partnership or a limited liability. This can affect expansion unless the owner had enough capital to start with.

Taxes, Profits and Insurance
While sole traders can hire employees for a business the owner is not considered as an employee and will not have to pay payroll tax – they will also have their individual tax file number for sole trader tax. All profit goes to the sole owner, and liability includes personal assets and joint assets that are shared with another person too. It is also advisable to look into insurance plans that are suitable, as you will not be covered by worker’s compensation if you are injured while on duty.

Be Aware Of Liability
It is common for failed business ventures to end up losing their assets when there are unpaid debts to suppliers, expenses etc. This issue can even arise in businesses where the operational risk is high. So making wise business decisions without taking unnecessary financial risks during the initial stage is quite important – this includes having a solid business plan to calculate the profit and losses that will be faced. Starting a business is always a risk, but making the right decisions can go a long way.

Recently I had a conversation with someone who worked in a law firm about a case they had at the time and the legal services she was offering to her client. The case involved a young woman who had been in a relationship with a guy, he became abusive and she ran away to her parents’ home in the country to be safe and live with them. Too scared to take her things, or go back she left her car at his house. In the two years they were apart he worked up $67, 000 in fines. This included parking fines, speeding fines and registration fines. Because they were registered as living together all these fines were sent in the mail to him so she never knew until they organisations fining her found her new destination. She could not afford the fines, and believed she had a case against her ex boyfriend. After hearing this I wondered how easy this would be to prove.

I wonder how much evidence would be necessary for her to prove that she had not been using the car. Unless she had made a statement when she left her boyfriend or had proof that she was living at her parent’s house all the time I wonder if it is far too hard to make a solid case. This made me wonder if more CCTV cameras and intensified observation is the only way we can collect evidence of things that we did not know we would have to prove at one date. Then again the idea of ‘big brother’ and being watched all the time is a daunting and scary thing. It can have dangerous repercussions, and leave us all in a position where we feel like we cannot do anything without being scrutinised for it.

These can’t be our only two options, yet alternatives do seem implausible. No matter how much you tell people to keep records of everything, that is easier said than done. That is a lot of effort often when you cannot have foresight of relationships breaking down, or someone ripping you off, or anything along those lines. I think we are luckier these days that we use the Internet so much, which can save unlimited data; we can often trace back our lives and our conversations. Then again there are still issues with this as well, as people are constantly worried about their privacy online, and who can access it. We don’t really know what information about us is known online and who can get to it, and although it may help us with legal issues it also helps companies exploit our likes and needs. Then legal services by family lawyers Gold Coast can come in to deal with these privacy issues. Really we are stuck in a position of how much should be recorded and kept and how much can we afford to forget and have no proof of?