Blog

Guides

• Personal Guarantees: Liability and Release

  Test personal guarantees against the signed instrument, principal debt, demands and variations, then distinguish payment, revocation and release.

• Hotchpot: Gifts, Advances and Estate Shares

  A hotchpot adjustment brings earlier benefits into an estate equalisation account when the will or law requires it, using traced gifts and verified values.

• Intermeddling: Estate Acts Before Authority

  Have estate assets been dealt with before authority is settled? Assess intermeddling, preserve the transaction record and identify the lawful next step.

• How a Service Trust Moves Practice Income

  Follow service trust fees from the professional practice through underlying costs, distributions and loans to establish the supported flow of benefit.

• Loan Covenants: Calculations and Breach Evidence

  A claimed loan covenant breach turns on the agreed test. Reproduce the calculation, check source figures and separate a failed ratio from its legal effect.

• Equitable Accounting Between Co-Owners

  Reconcile co-owner rent, mortgage payments and outgoings through equitable accounting, keeping disputed adjustments separate from ownership shares.

• Trustee Indemnity: Liabilities and Trust Assets

  Before relying on trustee indemnity, separate reimbursement from exoneration and reconcile each claimed expense, payment and recovery.

• Exclusive Occupation of the Family Home

  Who can remain in the home after separation? Prepare an exclusive occupation request or response with housing, household costs and practical order terms.

• Grant Acquittal: Reconcile Funding and Expenditure

  Prepare a grant acquittal that ties funding to permitted costs. Reconcile receipts, expenditure, unspent money and exceptions against the agreement.

• Accountable Advances: Acquitting Public Money

  Close an accountable advance with evidence of authorised spending and returned funds. Reconcile the recipient’s record and explain any remaining balance.

• Statutory Declarations: Forms and Execution Checks

  Preparing a statutory declaration? Choose the right Australian form, verify the facts and follow the applicable witnessing or digital execution route.

• Bank Guarantees: Terms, Claims and Release Checks

  Holding or calling a bank guarantee? Check the instrument, demand conditions and cash security, then reconcile any claim, fees and final release.

• Squatters’ Rights and Adverse Possession in Australia

  Compare squatters’ rights and adverse possession across Australian states, then establish occupation, permission and title evidence for estate land.

• Chargebacks: Rights, Evidence and Reversal Checks

  Disputing a card payment or answering a chargeback? Preserve authority and delivery evidence, check the bank’s route and reconcile any reversal.

• Non-Disclosure Agreements: Terms and Use Checks

  Sharing confidential information under an NDA? Define the permitted use, recipients and exceptions, then check execution, access and return obligations.

• Open Banking for Client-Authorised Financial Evidence

  Australian open banking shares account data under the Consumer Data Right, with consent, coverage and source preservation central to evidence collection.

• Guardianship: Adult Appointments and Evidence

  Applying for adult guardianship? Separate personal decisions from financial administration, then prepare the capacity evidence and tribunal application.

• Chart of Accounts: Read Codes and Map Changes

  Combining books with different account codes? Map the chart of accounts, preserve old classifications and test changed mappings against source records.

• Statement of Claim: Pleadings and Financial Facts

  Draft a statement of claim with material facts and a checked loss schedule, then distinguish a pleaded claim from an originating summons.

• Joint Venture: Structure, Accounts and Risk

  Understand a joint venture, compare it with a partnership and check property-development funding, contributions and distributions against the records.

• Res Judicata: Claims, Issues and Prior Decisions

  Can an earlier decision prevent the new financial claim? Compare claims, issues, parties and the court record before raising or answering preclusion.

• Contempt of Court: Orders, Breach and Response

  Breach of a civil order can raise contempt of court, but the terms, notice, conduct and response evidence matter more than an unpaid balance alone.

• Company Constitutions: Rules and Amendment Checks

  Establish which company constitution governs a proposed act by tracing adoption, amendments and statutory rules to the operative decision record.

• Strike-Off Action in Progress: ASIC Response Options

  When ASIC shows strike-off action in progress, check the proposed deregistration, creditor objections and asset records before choosing a response.