A final AVO will also restrict your abilities to travel and apply for visas.

What you may not know is that other matters may attract an AVO applied for by police on a provisional basis, and these matters will result in suspension and may result in revocation of your firearms license.

The most common types are Assault and Family Violence matters.

Where a person is charged with assault, even if the person assaulted does not want to press charges the police may, and they may also fapply for and obtain a provisional AVO on behalf of the person assaulted, even if the person assaulted does not want it.

The result is suspension of the firearms license of the person charged with assault pending determination of the matter, and if the interim Apprehended Violence Order is made as a final order  then revocation of their firearms license will follow.

So what should you do?

If any of these circumstances apply to you, you will be sent a notice of suspension from the NSW firearms registry, with a prepaid envelope. There is an obligation to immediately surrender your license and any weapons you hold. Send your license to the firearms registry and surrender any weapons to your nearest police station.

Depending on the individual circumstances of the case you may have a right of appeal against the suspension to the Administrative Appeals Tribunial or the Local Court.

If you find youself needing help to appeal the suspension of your firearms licence, then contact Sharyn Jenkins ph 63334400

Throughout Australia (exceptWestern Australia) divorce revokes a gift of property or Appointment of Trusteeship made in a Will in favour of a former spouse if there is no contrary intention being stated in the Will itself.

Divorce does not however revoke an appointment of your former spouse as a Trustee of property left on trust for your’s and your spouse’s children.

Unlike Wills however, a divorce does not revoke the appointment of your spouse as your Attorney or Enduring Guardian.  A Power of Attorney is only revoked if the Attorney’s appointment is specifically revoked, preferably in writing and served on that person, or if the Attorney renounces the appointment, dies, becomes bankrupt, or no longer has the mental or physical capacity to act.

The appointment of your spouse as your  Enduring Guardian is only automatically revoked if the appointment was made prior to a marriage, even if it is your spouse who you appointed.

Separating is usually a traumatic process and often times such things as changing your Will, Power of Attorney etc are furthermost from your mind at such times.  It is very important that you review these documents to ensure that your former spouse is no longer involved in your financial or personal affairs long after yoy have separated and otherwise finalised your financial relationship.

Contact us to discuss your needs, and ask us about our “First Step Package” specifically designed for those who are taking those first steps following the breakdown of a relationship or marriage.

King Cain Solicitors telephone (02) 6333 4400 or call in to our office to make an appointment.

Do you know what to do or steps to take? Decisions you make now can make
a critical difference in time and ultimate outcome for you and your family.

This is now even more important as you may be asked, or wish to attend  mediation with one of the several organisations that offer Family Law mediation services for separating couples. You must always remember that these organisations are not able or qualified to give you legal advice. Failing to do so could cost you thousands.

For your own peace of mind and certainly before participating in mediation, you should know your rights and entitlements. It is this all important initial advice that will enable you to secure your financial future and relationships with your children.

With this in mind, we have developed a package specifically designed for those who are taking these first steps. You get:

• An appointment with one of our four (4) specialist Family Lawyers including Bathurst’s only Law Society Accredited Family Law Specialist – with no time limit.
• A written advice that includes likely outcomes and what to do next (the more precise details you give us, the more precise we can be).
• An interactive spreadsheet where you can model different financial scenarios.
• Online access through our exclusive Client Portal via our website to your documents and General Family Law information.
• All at a fixed cost and no obligation.

If you wish to instruct us further, then all you have to do is let us know.

We are sure you will be happy having the peace of mind knowing your future is protected.

Only at King Cain Solicitors can you be assured of the proven expertise of Bathurst’s only Law Society Accredited Family Law Specialist to give that all important initial advice to help you through difficult times.

Contact us on (02) 6333 4400 or call in to make an appointment.

We wish to advise that we are now able to offer a weekend and after hours Conveyancing Service where one of our Solicitors, Nick Johnson, is now available, after hours, Saturday mornings and other times as arranged during the weekend should this be of benefit to you.

Nick can be contacted directly on 0421 639 864

Nick will be available to provide advice, reviewing and preparing Contracts for Sale and executing any necessary documents either at our offices on the corner of Keppel and Bentinck Streets Bathurst (above Blockbuster Video), or he can come to your Real Estate Agents office and speak with you there.
If your time is limited we can help you with with our after hours and weekend service,so contact Nick Johnson on 0421 639 864 or our office on (02)63334400

You and your former spouse or defacto have separated, possibly resolved children’s matters and come to an agreement to divide your joint property.

You may even have had the assistance of a Mediator, written your agreement down, and implemented it.

You may have even re-partnered and purchased another home and generally moved on.

What you may not have done is to have your property agreement formalised.

Big mistake.

If you have not formalised your property agreement then months or even years down the track, you may receive the shock of your life when you are served with your former spouses application for a property adjustment.

Are you safe?  Well the short answer is no.

Irrespective of time limits that apply to the automatic right to commence property proceedings, the Family Law Act allows proceedings to be commenced out of time in some circumstances, sometimes decades later.  If the Court is satisfied that the hardship that can be caused to one party or to a child of the relationship outweighs the hardship caused to the other party if the Court does not grant permission to allow proceedings to be commenced out of time.

Further, if you commence proceedings in relation to children or other non-property related matters at a later time, your former spouse can join property proceedings to that application in their response, without having to go through the normal process of applying to commence proceedings out of time.

Depending on the individual circumstances, this can occur even years later and in some cases that have come before the Court have been as much as decades later.

Further, there are also potential tax benefits in formalising your agreement, eg when transferring the former family home or investment property there is no stamp duty payable if it is done in accordance with a Court Order, there are concessions in relation to CGT for investment properties and for those who are in private business. There are also
potentially very significant tax considerations such as CGT and when assets are transferred out of a family company or if dividends are paid as part of a Family Law settlement.

So even if you are someone with only your home to divide or your assets are more extensive, there are very important reasons and benefits in formalising your property settlements.

The fact that you have done so informally may not save you from a claim arising from your distant past.

Recently, the Commissioner of Taxation sought a statutory indemnity from directors of a Company under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (‘The Act’) because amounts paid had been applied to the Company’s tax obligations.

The Company’s director attempted to rely on statutory defences under the Act and
argued that:

• He had reasonable grounds to expect that the Company was solvent and would remain solvent even if it made the payment.
• He had reasonable grounds to believe that competent and reliable persons (an
  accountant and internal employee) were responsible  for providing him with adequate financial information about solvency.

The director had been concentrating on developing income streams for the Company
and he “thought” others were looking after the financial side of things.

The NSW Supreme Court held that the “financial records of the company were in
an  unacceptable state”, and that because of this, no reasonable grounds were established on which the director could reasonably expect that the Company was solvent:  he was  Ordered to pay $70,000.00.

It is important that:

• good financial records be maintained to monitor the company’s solvency.
• directors must read, understand and inform themselves as to the company’s financial position.

King Cain can assist you with Business or Company  matters. If you have a matter you wish to discuss feel free to phone Paul Carver or Kel Graham, on 63334400 or come into our office at Level 1, Suite 4  90 Keppel Street, (cnr Keppel & Bentinck streets) Bathurst NSW 2795 to arrange an appointment.

This is often not the case, even though there may be mandatory penalty provisions
that apply.

The penalties for Drink Driving are severe and include gaol for all but driving
with the low or novice range of offences.  In all cases there is an automatic period of disqualification and for High and Mid Range offences unlimited maximum periods.

Even though there are minimum disqualification periods applicable, whether or not
the Courts impose the minimum is a matter to be decided in each individual case.

There are a number of circumstances in which it is possible to argue:

• To backdate the disqualification to the date of the offence, as opposed to a
  date of sentence which could be several weeks later.
• That there may be grounds to reduce the charge from Mid Range to Low Range or
  High Range to Mid Range.
• The charge itself can be defended on the basis that you did not have the level
  of alcohol in your system at the time of driving.
• That the test was otherwise improper or illegally obtained.

Drink Driving offences are rightly to be taken very seriously, and King Cain does not
condone Drink Driving.  However people can and do make genuine mistakes and every individual is entitled to know their legal rights.

First consultation free

Do you need assistance with:

• Recovery of damages
• Medical Law
• Advice on the strength of a claim
• Amount of compensation you may be entitled to
• Your rights if you work in a Coalmine?
• Dispute with an insurer

Utilise the benefits of the combined knowledge, experience and expertise of King Cain Solicitors and Taylor & Scott Lawyers.

In recent years our Firm has formed a relationship with Taylor &
Scott Compensation Lawyers.

Taylor & Scott Compensation Lawyers is a Firm based in Sydney with offices at Sydney, Lidcombe, Campbelltown, Newcastle and Wollongong. It has a long history of helping people with compensation law matters. The firm has been in existence for over 100 years. It has a number of Solicitors who are accredited by the Law Society as specialists in their area of work. For more information  you can visit their website; www.taylorandscott.com.au

Rather than having our clients travel to Sydney, our arrangements with Taylor & Scott Compensation Lawyers has them attending at our offices on regular visits to service our clients.

For a confidential meeting contact Michelle Hibberson at King Cain
Solicitors on (02) 6333 4400 to make an appointment for your free consultation.

Have you been properly looked after?

When someone close to you dies, it is always a difficult time. What’s often more upsetting is to discover that the deceased has not left you a fair share of their estate.

There are very good reasons why someone should contest a Will. For example, the law allows family members, de facto and same sex partners or anyone else who can show they were financially dependant on the deceased to challenge a Will if they believe the Will to be unfair.

Wills can also be challenged if the deceased lacked the mental capacity to understand what they were signing or where they may have been influenced to sign a Will that did not reflect their wishes.

As the Executor of an estate, you may have received a Notice of an intention to dispute a Will.  You must seek legal advice immediately if you have received a Notice like this.

At King Cain, we have a number of experienced lawyers to work with you and advise
of the legal options and avenues available.

It is essential that you obtain legal advice without delay as there are strict time limits in making claims.  The time limit that applies to your claim may vary.

If King Cain can assist you in any legal matter, please contact us on 6333 4400 or
call in and see me, Kelvin Graham at our offices at Level 1, Suite 4/90 Keppel Street Bathurst for an appointment

The ability to obtain information quickly with the minimum of fuss is important to everybody in today’s world.

Gaining access to information can still be very frustrating and despite access to all
the forms of communication we have now, people need simple, effective means of locating
services and contacting their friends and people they rely upon.

You may have seen codes like this at large retailers and more recently on Real
Estate ‘For Sale’ signs.

At King Cain, we believe that providing a means of accessing information quickly
is essential.  That’s why we have now provided our clients with our own unique “QR Code” so that people can quickly access information and contact us.

QR Codes were first created by Toyota back in 1994 to track vehicles during the manufacturing process.  Our code provides you with easy access to ourwebsite, general information, contact details and location. We have also integrated the technology in providing easy access to our clients for their own specific and secure log on site at our website, where they can access correspondence and information from their smart phone or computer.

Try the code above and be surprised.  You can download the software free from the internet to your smart phone.

King Cain, continuing to provide the highest level of expertise and service with integrity for your legal solutions.

If we can assist you in any legal matter, please
contact us on 6333 4400 or use the QR code above to find out more about our
services.