Following the protests and radical action taken in response to 22-year-old Mahsa Amini’s death, Iranian authorities are now reviewing the decades long “hijab law”. The law, established in April 1983, four years after the Islamic Revolution mandated all women, including non-Muslims and foreigners to cover their heads and “dress respectfully”. The mandatory hijab law has seen a society declining in mental and social health through a study conducted by the Scientific Association of Psychiatrists. By taking away women’s freedom and individuality, the government is promoting censorship and segregation.

However, beyond the discrimination perpetuated by the law lies the legal issue – what constitutes a “bad or improper hijabi”?  Due to the unclear definition of these terms, the Islamic Religious Police (widely known as the morality police) who enforce the law have different interpretations of “right” and “wrong”. This is seen in the death of Mahsa Amini who allegedly had a heart attack as she was detained at a morality police station. She was arrested for the improper wearing of the hijab, and it is assumed tortured for failing to adhere to the law. After spending three days in a coma, she passed away. The injustice is clear throughout the case as the morality police lied about Amini’s cause of death too. The public demonstrations over her death are the biggest in the Islamic Republic since the 2019 gasoline protests and the hundreds that were killed in the police crackdowns rival that of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The public taking a stand against the law has resulted in rising pressure on the Iranian government and the abolishment of the morality police. This step forward is accompanied by the review of the headscarf law which is causing a fissure within the government itself. While reformists like the Union of Islamic Iran People Party call for authorities to “prepare the legal elements paving the way for the cancellation of the mandatory hijab law”, conservatists like Raisi call for mobilisation to enforce it. The call for the law to be rescinded has finally been heard and the world waits in anticipation.

If you or someone you know wish to discuss this issue further, then please do not hesitate to contact us on 02 8999 9809.

The term “best interest of the child” plays a crucial role in family law legislations and is a factor that Court takes into account when handling cases in regards to children. To uphold Article 3 of the United Nations Conventions on the Right of the Child which states “in all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration”, the Australian Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) was amended in 1995. The Act requires the court to consider the best interest of the child and also makes it clear that both parents have shared responsibility for the child until they are a legal adult.

In 2006, the factors that go into the Court’s consideration when deciding best interests of the child were broken into two lists – primary considerations and additional considerations. The focus of these lists is on protecting the child from psychological and physical abuse as well as making sure they have proper parenting and support.

Primary Considerations

Primary considerations are the main points that the court adheres to when acting in the child’s best interest. They are:

Additional Considerations

Only relevant additional considerations are taken in account in court, these include:

In summary, the best interest of the child is one of the main components the Court considers in Family Law and it must hold their best interest at the utmost of importance, above that of parent’s and caregiver’s. If there is more than one child, then the court considers what is best for each individual and how it would impact their relationship with each other.

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This article is in regard to Scott Morrisons recent scandal – him appointing himself to numerous ministerial portfolios without the publics knowledge.

The use of government inquires ensures that any concern to the public is dealt with in a logical and easy process. The purpose of all inquiries is to establish the facts, find out exactly what happened and why, as well as finding out who may be accountable to then try to learn the lessons that will prevent a recurrence of the events.

The importance and significance of government inquiries is seen in the recent scandal that former Prime Minister Scott Morrison is currently involved in. It was recently discovered that Scott Morrison has secretly appointed himself to 5 ministerial portfolios. In doing this it is claimed that Scott Morrison deceived the Australian public as he didn’t tell anyone about appointing himself to the several portfolios. He claimed that he didn’t disclose the information as he thought it was the best operation for the government during the Covid-19 pandemic which was a situation he said was the worst crisis since the second world war.

This incident has raised several questions about the former prime ministers conduct within parliament. The Governor-general acted on the advice of the government on the day that Scott Morrison claimed the portfolios in the way they went about the situation in not letting cabinet or the general public aware of the change.

A governmental inquiry is extremely useful in this instance as through the investigations that will be undertaken, the questions that need to be answered will be answered with as much detail as possible. The inquiry will ensure that this situation doesn’t happen again as it is something that has caused problems to arise within the government and has also affected Scott Morrisons personal life as his family is being questioned by reporters despite the fact that they would not have anything to do with Scott Morrisons secret appointment to the portfolios.

If you or someone you know wish to discuss this issue further, then please do not hesitate to contact us on 02 8999 9809.

I have recently completed my work experience at Freedman and Gopalan Solicitors. I am extremely grateful for the past few days, and I am definitely pleased that I chose to come to Freedman and Gopalan to complete my work experience. I made the decision to come to this Law firm as I have wanted to study law and become a lawyer one day for as long as I can remember and new that when I was given this opportunity, I would jump at the chance to see what being a lawyer is really like and if it really is what I want to do.

Throughout the past 4 days I have learnt a lot about how things work around law firms and the amount of work that goes into everything that happens. I completed simple tasks such as archiving, creating chronologies, scanning and destroying and writing a long list of law related articles. Despite seeming like a something small, I learnt that each task that needed to be completed was extremely vital in ensuring all cases and the firm ran smoothly. I definitely enjoyed everything that I did and especially enjoyed reading through each of cases as they definitely gave me an insight into the types of things I might encounter when undertaking a career in law. Despite their being a large range of cases that the firm deals with, all of them intrigued me immensely as I was curious as to how and why things happened and felt eager to be a part of the process.

When starting my time at Freedman and Gopalan, I was definitely nervous but excited at the same time as I wasn’t sure what to expect and how I would feel after my last day. Its safe to say that I shouldn’t have been that nervous as immediately after walking in, I felt extremely welcome and comfortable to begin learning and helping out. The entire team are all really open and friendly people who didn’t hesitate to help me when I was unsure of something, and I am most definitely going to miss getting to learn new things from everyone at the firm.

Overall, I am undeniably pleased with the time I have spent with the staff at Freedman and Gopalan and I am immensely grateful that everyone was willing to let me spend the past 4 days here despite having a long list of tasks to complete each day. If ever given the chance again, I would happily come back to Freedman and Gopalan. Although it was only a few days, the limited amount of time that I spent here was eye-opening and helped me decide that I would love to continue studying and one day pursue a career in Law.

If you or someone you know wish to discuss this issue further, then please do not hesitate to contact us on 02 8999 9809.

Dispute resolution is how disputes come to an end. There are a variety of types of dispute resolution that can be used for a variety of situations, including Mediation, Arbitration and Litigation.

Mediation involves a third party who will help resolve the issue and help them come to an agreement. An arbitrated outcome is where an arbitrator court will decide how the dispute will be resolved and will enforce a binding decision on the parties. A successful dispute resolution team will ensure that they do whatever is necessary to help the parties come to an end with the disagreement. The team for dispute resolution will need to make sure they are all aware of the details of the situation and that they are willing to help out.

There must also be a well-set plan that can be used throughout the resolution process, this will ensure that the process runs smoothly, and everyone is aware of what is happening throughout the period of the dispute. Everyone needs to be aware of the agreed upon strategies that must be implemented into the practical action plan that will make all components of the process clear and easy to follow. The team must also be confident in what they are doing to avoid the risk of any errors that could occur within the process. Everyone must also be willing to seek common ground and find a middle ground where it will be the most practical for cost and time, as well as keeping the tone of the negotiation focused on resolution rather than fault-finding and complaining to ensure momentum towards a solution. These factors will all ensure that the dispute resolution process runs smoothly and effectively to allow for the outcome to be easy to achieve for all involved.

If you or someone you know wish to discuss this issue further, then please do not hesitate to contact us on 02 8999 9809.

The Robodebt scandal has been described as a shameful chapter in Australian History due to the distress that it caused to thousands of people. According to SBS news ‘People lost marriages, they’ve gone bankrupt, they’ve lost their houses and some people have lost their lives’.

Originally the scheme was implemented by the former coalition government, which was meant to help collect debts from Australians who owed them, however it ‘aggressively pursued tens of thousands of Australians for debts they did not owe’. The Australian Taxation Office has ensured that Australians are paying and receiving the correct amount of tax and benefits using data matching systems. Previous computers were finding around 300,000 discrepancies a year; however, Services Australia only had the resources to investigate 20,000 of the higher risk cases while the rest were left unsolved. The way that the government implanted a plan to solve this was to allow an algorithm instead of humans to identify and pursue the outstanding payments which could manage to send out 20,000 notices a week rather then in a year. The scheme wrongfully notified people who didn’t owe outstanding debts, however thousands of Australians were still being pursued to and forced to pay outstanding debts.

By the time the scheme was scrapped in 2020, 470,000 people had been wrongly issued debts which the government claimed would repay them in a full cost of $21 million. Many people had incidences where thousands of dollars were taken out of their accounts without warning which impacted multiple factors of their lives, from their families to the homes and health.

Since the scheme was first introduced, there has been numerous investigations into it and the multiple issues that arouse during its use in 2017. The Federal Court found that the scheme was unlawful and that there was no way for Centrelink to have been satisfied the debts were actually correct. In 2020, 400,000 victims brought on a class action which the government agreed to settle by paying out a further $112 million in compensation on top of the existing payments they were required to pay. Unfortunately, after 6 years since Robodebt was first introduced, there is still no answer as to who is accountable for what happened.

If you or someone you know wish to discuss this issue further, then please do not hesitate to contact us on 02 8999 9809.

Optus were recently involved in a data breach scandal which impacted potentially millions of customers. To current knowledge, it is believed that the attackers were working for a criminal or state sponsored organisation. The data breach had impacted Optus customers as their name, date of birth, phone number, and email addresses, may have been released to the attackers. Unfortunately, it may be worse for some customers as their drivers license or passport numbers may also be in the hands of the criminals behind the act. This is extremely unsafe for these Australians as it puts thousands of people at a high risk of identity theft and urgent action must happen to prevent any harm caused by the incident.

Unfortunately, the exact number of how many people fell victim to the breach is not currently known however, we do know that out of the 9.7 million subscribers Optus had at the time of the incident, there was a significant number of them whose details are now exposed to the attacker. Fortunately, for the customers, despite a variety of personal details possibly being at risk, the payment details and account passwords remain secure and safe to operate during this time.

Identity fraud is a large risk at this stage as only a small amount of personal information is necessary for someone to commit identity fraud, therefore the access that the attacker has to these people’s personal information can put them at high risk of the attacker opening a bank account, gaining a credit card, applying for a passport, or conducting a wide range of illegal activity.

To help prevent this, Optus has claimed that they will contact any customers that they believe are at a high risk of being compromised by sending personal notifications and offering third-party monitoring services. Optus also sent out a message advising customers to not click on any links via SMS messages or emails regarding their information being compromised as Optus has stated they will not be sending out any links and the safest way to contact them is by going through the app or contacting them directly in person or over the phone.

If you or someone you know wish to discuss this issue further, then please do not hesitate to contact us on 02 8999 9809.

The Labor government has plans to introduce a Bill to parliament with hopes to encourage pensioners to downsize and free up their larger homes for younger families. The Albanese’s government’s legislation would give pensioners an additional 12-month asset test exemption on their home sales proceeds. This is designed to give pensioners time to purchase a new home before their pension is affected.

Amanda Rishworth, a social services minister stated “We don’t want people putting off downsizing to a more suitable home because they are concerned about the impact it could have on their payment rate and overall income”, which is indicative of the Labor government’s goal to help pensioners have more flexibility by extending the length of the home sale proceeds to 24 months. In effect, this would provide them with ample time to buy a new home before the money that goes into their account from the house sale will affect their pension payments.

While this incentivises pensioners to downsize, this also benefits younger families that are seeking to grow their family sizes and require a larger house. Last year in 2021, there were roughly 8000 pensioners who downsized, and the Labor Government hopes that under this potential law, more pensioners will also downsize in the coming years.

This law was set to come into effect from 1 January, 2023.

If you or someone you know wish to discuss this issue further, then please do not hesitate to contact us on 02 8999 9809.

Social media is used to connect and share information with anyone who has access to it. Almost all law firms have gone digital in some way within the past few years as social media is a way for firms to engage more people and grow the business. Through modern day techniques, firms must utilize the social media aspects of the changing world. By staying and growing with the current trends that are seen on social media, law firms can engage a wider range of audiences that could then potentially be clients in the future. However, through the use of understanding the different parts of social media, law firms can aim to engage a particular audience that they are trying to target to achieve better brand recognition through the stream of referrals from a variety of interaction that social media can bring forward. The social media strategies used can help develop a reputation for the firm which will gain them better relationships with future or current clients.

Modern day law firms utilise the new rise of social media as it can be valuable to them in many ways. Through using social media, law firms can engage with audiences in informative and emotional content which will aim to use the different aspects of a both intellectual and the emotional side of people to ensure they are engaged and are recognizing the firms work and reputation. Ensuring that the law firm keeps their reputation and the image they have created for themselves, through posting on the various social media platforms, the law firm can engage audiences through the comments where they are able to show the human side of the firm rather then people only seeing the posts that are computer generated. This can help the firm and the clients understand each-others needs and wants to then come to a mutual understanding of how to then communicate with each other later on.

If you or someone you know wish to discuss this issue further, then please do not hesitate to contact us on 02 8999 9809.

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