Family Law Blog

I am not alone when thinking of things in twos - Gillard v Rudd, Holden v Ford, Pepsi v Coke, Optus v Telstra... Two teams in a match, two birds with one stone, two peas in a pod. Two parties in a court case. Except - this last phrase is not always the case. There are two ways a person can become a third party to a traditional two party case – either as an Independent Children’s Lawyer or an Intervener.

Have you ever loved your partner so much you wanted to adopt them? Polo magnate, John Goodman who is facing a civil trial in the US over the death of a 23-year-old in a hit and run accident, did just that. A judge previously ruled that a trust Mr Goodman had set up for his two children could not be considered part of his financial worth if a jury awarded damages to the victim’s family. In an attempt to provide for his girlfriend, Mr Goodman has since adopted said girlfriend as his legal daughter, in turn allowing her to be entitled to a third of the family trust. An American Court has described the action as a new "twilight zone" for the legal system. It is very unlikely that we get such a twilight rezoning case as the Adoption Act of NSW and it’s mirroring counterparts from other states state that adoption applies to a child under the age of 18 or for a person over the age of 18 that was cared for as a ward or stepchild of the adoptive parent when they were underage.