r/AusLegal

Bit of a messy situation, but keen to hear what people reckon.

I've got a young kid I've never met. The mum's had full care since birth. When she first fell pregnant, I was in another relationship and wanted nothing to do with it. I was worried about what it would mean for my life and finances. I said some things about not wanting my name on anything or being involved in child support, and even mentioned coming back for custody down the track if she pursued it.

Paternity was eventually confirmed and I've been paying child support since.

I work for myself, have a business and have a few years of tax returns I still haven't lodged. Child support's been worked out using provisional income, and now the mum's put in for a reassessment. She reckons I'm earning more than what's being assessed and wants them to look into my business finances, potentially going back a bit as well. Not sure what'll come of that or whether I'll end up with a tax bill once I get everything sorted. The application is so invasive asks to go through all my info and it honestly feels like harassment. She's also supplied stuff from social media to show my lifestyle i guess.

As for seeing the kid, I changed my mind about being involved and have been trying to organise something. I've done a parenting course, suggested dates, spoken to supervised contact services and offered to pay for the visits.

The mum's agreed to supervised contact, but wants it locked in for the same time every week. My work's all over the place and involves travel, so I've offered dates well in advance instead. She reckons that's not consistent enough for a young kid who's never met me.

She also wants the initial visits supervised, I can't bring anyone and she wont agree to unsupervised, and wants sole say over major decisions. I wasn't comfortable agreeing to all that, especially before I've even met the kid.

I've asked for some information about the kid and suggested mediation, but she thinks I'm putting too many conditions on things instead of just getting the visits started.

There's obviously not much trust there, and I get that a fair bit of that comes down to how I handled things originally.

We've had plenty of back and forth over email. I've accused her of making things difficult and threatened to take it to Family Court a few times. I even told her I was going ahead with an application, but haven't actually followed through with anything formal.

We eventually agreed on a supervised contact service and a set number of visits, but still couldn't sort out the weekly schedule and whether mediation needed to happen first.

She then sent me a pretty lengthy email going through the whole history, including what I said when she was pregnant, the child support stuff, the time I wasn't involved, the court threats and the fact I've still never met the kid. Basically told me I've spent more time arguing about my rights and blaming her than actually trying to build a relationship.

She's now said she's done going back and forth and that if I want to take things further, it needs to be through lawyers or court. I haven't replied since.

So I'm sitting here with a kid I've never met, a child support reassessment on the way, a few years of tax returns to sort out and no parenting arrangements in place.

I reckon I've made a genuine effort more recently, but I can see why she doesn't trust me. At the same time, I don't think I should have to agree to every long-term condition she wants just to start seeing my kid.

Just wondering how this would look if it ended up in court, whether I've made things worse with the emails, and how much trouble the child support and tax side could cause. Also wondering whether the child support stuff is harassment. She has said I'm controlling and emotionally abusive before so I guess if I applied for an IVo she will too.

A friend of mine moved from the UK to Australia last year. He's still got around £5k left on a personal loan and another £3k on a UK credit card.

He's keeping up with the repayments for now, but money is getting really tight, and he's not sure how much longer he can afford to keep paying. He has no assets in the UK and doesn't plan on moving back.

For anyone who's been in a similar situation, what actually happened when you stopped paying UK debts while living in Australia?

Did the lenders just sell the debt to collection agencies and keep sending letters, or did anyone actually get taken to court? Has anyone had a UK CCJ followed up in Australia or had their Australian bank account or wages affected?

I'm particularly interested in firsthand experiences with relatively small debts (under £10k in total).

Thanks

Hi all just been through a rough confusing period. I was suspended for 3 months from court for exceeding demerit points. Got a letter around 2 months ish saying my fines were removed from my record the ones i was suspended for. Went to service nsw got my license back because they disqualified me for a day so had to get a new one. Out of no where without notice i got suspended again and they want me to do the suspension again.

Pls help.

I received a fine in the mail which was my fault and I logged in to view the information and pay it.

This has been the first time I have ever received.

While logged in I noticed another fine sitting there from 2014 due to not having a train ticket.

I was never aware of this fine so I called up and they advised me to contest it as person unaware or pay it. So I did that stating it could have been sent to the wrong address or never sent, since I wasn’t aware this existed.

To my surprise around 10 months later I receive a letter saying that my appeal is rejected and I have 3 weeks to pay the fine, as it is my responsibility to advise them where I live or if I changed were I lived so they can send the fine to the correct place. It is not their responsibility to check where I live. Also I need to pay the fine and all the additional fees accumulated over those years. Obviously they don’t let you contest again or reply to them.

What should I do next?

So, I've been recently contacted by my lawyer about potentially being eligible for TDP. I haven’t signed or agreed to anything yet, and I'm really hesitant.

​They're asking for 20% + GST, which sounds like a huge chunk to me. Honestly, I'm wondering if this is something I can just manage on my own. Is the process incredibly complex, or is it something manageable with a bit of effort and research?

​To make things more complicated, I'm currently looking for work (I have a 1-2 day capacity per week). From what I understand, starting a job could affect my TDP eligibility. I’m worried about kicking off this whole process now, only to find a job in three months. What happens in that scenario?

​For anyone who has been through this in Victoria, especially if you did it yourself or used a lawyer with lower fees, I’d love your input. Is a lawyer really necessary, or am I overthinking this? And how long does the whole process usually take?

​Any advice would be helpful! Thanks y'all

I'm on holiday in South America and would like to send some stuff back to my family and friends, I tried looking for official info but didn't have much luck so here I am. My main concern is some chocolates and a couple of things I got with a bit of leather or wood in them. I'm not trying to send any seeds or unprocessed animal products but I know we've got strict import laws so I'm hoping someone can tell me about the process or at least the do's and don'ts

Im in professional services and sometimes do fieldwork stints (e.g. 12 hrs a day for 14 days straight) depending on the project.

The company I work for does have a time in lieu allowance but it is significantly less than the overtime worked (i.e., most of the overtime is paid out and you're expected to be back in the office after e.g. 2 days following the end of your stint).

I would prefer to take more time off. Can I reject overtime pay in favour of time in lieu?

This just happened. I was the first car at an intersection where there were roadworks. There was a boom gate in front of me and it was closed, but the traffic light behind it was green. I stopped behind the boom gate.

As the traffic light turned yellow and then red, the boom gate opened. I was confused and didn’t move, but then the light on the boom gate (now above, in an L shape) turned green. I thought maybe the boom gates were synced to the traffic lights, or were a substitute for the traffic lights, so I drove forward.

I saw the white flashes of a red light camera and my heart sank. Was the open boom gate the correct go-ahead signal? If not, will the confusing design of the roadworks / traffic signals be of any use to me if I want to dispute the case?

Thank you

I am looking into filing a complaint with the fair work commission as I've been soft fired from my job after making a complaint about a member of management and would like some advice.

For context, I was injured at work late October 2025 and filed for Work Cover. Following my return to work I was regularly paired with a member of management who often made defamatory statements regarding race and gender. I did not engage with or encourage these comments but felt uncomfortable saying anything. Working in manufacturing this is unfortunately pretty normal behaviour.

In June this year this manager made a sexist comment towards the businesses only female employee, which led to me making a complaint directly to the business owner. A 3rd party contractor was brought in, who 'investigated' and found it was my word vs his. The outcome was to keep us separated going farward.

Very soon following the complaint outcome meeting my hours were reduced. I also had two serious alegations made against me which were quickly disproven. I have never previously had any complaints or write ups regarding my behavior or performance so these were both very unexpected. Now it is mid October and I havent been given hours in several weeks. When I asked why the answer they gave was that all work hours have been allocated elsewhere. Prior to my injury I was consistantly working 24 hour weeks and while I am a casual employee and my hours are not garunteed, the fact this has occurred after making my complaint is highly suspect.

It is my belief that following my complaint they were trying to find a reason to fire me, and when that didnt work they have instead made it so that I will need to leave for another job. I am within 12 months of making my Work Cover claim so my employment is protected until that date passes, however Work Cover has said they can not help.

I am now looking at filing a complaint with the Fair Work Commission. Unfortunately I do not have the means or income to hire a lawyer so I have been contacting various community legal aid services for help. Because this falls under employment law I haven't had any success yet but I am still trying. I am also looking into those no win no fee lawyers but I am hesitant of hidden costs.

In the meantime I am looking for some advice or insight into making a Fair Work complaint for retaliation. If you have had any experience with this process or been in a similair situation I would love some insight.

Alright so before I begin, I’m not trying to get this job back because in the bigger picture I realise it was absolutely awful to work there, considering only working there for a little over 5 months and the efforts/loyalty I made during having little to no experience

But for context, my role was a warehousing & admin hybrid role for an automotive company managing 3 different states via 3PL for freight/dispatch and order collections. Sales via phone and walk ins, service and warranty calls, picking orders for our local warehouse and other admin & warehousing duties. All for 60k/yr… at 18/19 years old

Last friday 9/10. 10 minutes before my shift ended, I had my manager come to my desk and handed me a termination of employment sheet. Saying that day was my last shift and I’m no longer working there. I was absolutely taken back as I had no idea as to why I could have been fired while absolutely nothing struck out to me. My manager said that I was getting fired due to a worry of lack in continuing progression throughout my role.

Now the reason why I want to take this to fair work is that I was pressured into all my duties within my role, around 1-2 months into first joining. We were a warehouse team of 3 then one of the colleagues with 2 years experience quit and never came back. My manager was surprised that I didn’t leave them too due to the workload so soon. I was then expected to take on 7-8 different duties independently without any form of legitimate training. Skill development was make a mistake, ask questions and work from there. So yes mistakes were made here and there but I was catching on to new systems/softwares and processes quite rapidly. We had then had an extended amount of growth within the business and my independent duties required more attention than others included due to urgency. Which made my workload increasingly difficult. I would ask for help but the warehouse was that busy, there was no legitimate time for extra training to be carried out. Often times was getting congratulated for my efforts and hard work during the really busy periods.

I had spoken with my manager about reconsidering the decision as I had stuck with them through the thick of it being only 2 staff in the warehouse (not even 3 months experience) and that continual best efforts was carried out on my work day by day (plenty of great reviews from customers). During that conversation, there was a lot of discrepancies regarding the exact reason for termination, points they made I followed up asking for proof and none was to be shown. I had also had NO documented conversations regarding performance or anything outlining a risk to my employment if no improvements were made, nothing was spoken by mouth either. I was told that I would hear a final verdict over the weekend and got nothing back from them. Which wasn’t far from expected.

Unfortunately being a company of under 15 people across Brisbane and Melbourne, I cannot report this to fair work as I only worked there for 5 months.

Is there any other options regarding taking this further?

Edit: I am getting payed a week worth but still feel that it’s a very unfair play, I did also find that they opened the position on Seek 17 days ago.

Hi there, so i used to work as a casual chef in Victoria under club award. Recently the company contacted saying that they had failed to provide proper overtime and would pay back. So the situation is i worked there from 2016- current. I had shifts with 7-8 hours continuous without breaks in-between. Sometimes Being an immigrant i didnot know about the requirement of break after 5 hours.

So naturally i was happy expecting to have a good amount when you consider working for last 10 years. I know the company only needs to pay for last 6 years.

Today there was meeting with the hr and their accountant and i am shocked to see they saying only 5k. Basically they are saying they used their ai software and put breaks after 5 hours ( assuemd we were given break) . Their arguments is they dont have past roster and say we should have taken breaks.

Pls help

So as the title says my ex and his mother are claiming they sort out legal advice in regard to their belongings which I told them they had 9mths to collect and have abandoned them to my understanding as no attempts until now have been made. Me and him came to an agreement that I would give it back cleaned and all packed and ready even though I didn’t have to due to text messages where he has told me to just chuck everything out his and his mother’s belongings. The agreement which we both agreed on was if I didn’t have everything packed and cleaned by this weekend then he was to wait until I had done it no given time line for when it had to be done by before he booked a truck or anything. He has now messaged me yesterday saying he saw a lawyer and I have 14 days to do it and he’s booked a truck and I’ve said no we had a pre standing agreement that can not be changed unless we both agree to the change and yes his items were abandoned to my knowledge correct me if I am wrong as I’ve given him and his mother since beginning of January to collect their things but they have not made any attempts until now. He has also claimed he had booked a truck twice which he never told me about. What do I do? He broke most of our furniture and we’ve been using what was his until I saved up enough to get our own again. Something he is aware of as I’m still paying for the debts he left me as well something he said he would help pay but hasn’t.

Has anyone here actually managed to get their money back after getting a court judgment in Victoria?

I lent someone money a while ago and they never paid me back, so I ended up taking them to court and got a judgment in my favour.

Recently went through an oral examination to find out what assets or income they have, but it was pretty much a waste of time.

The guy is self-employed and works in construction. Apparently he has responded that he doesn’t own a car, has no assets worth mentioning and only has about $500 in his bank accounts.

I find it hard to believe that someone working as a self-employed has no vehicle or anything of value, but the court seemed happy enough with his answers and closed the examination without asking for much supporting evidence.

Now I’m back to square one. I’ve got a court order saying he owes me money, but no real idea how to actually recover it.

He’s keep posting on internet the project he just completed but has no money.

Has anyone been in a similar situation and managed to get paid?

Would be interested in hearing from people who’ve dealt with self-employed debtors. Did you use a warrant of seizure, garnishee order, private investigator or something else?

Would appreciate any real-world experiences rather than just being told to get a lawyer. I’m trying to work out whether there’s a practical way to enforce the judgment without spending more money chasing someone who claims to have nothing.

Am I dreaming but I was sure that an Australian thing exists (or Australian segment of a bigger system) where a client pays a fee to post a narrow legal question, lawyers respond and get paid.

Is this a lawyer-only system that the generally public cannot access?

Is it in Westlaw or Jade similar?

Or did I just imagine it.

Has anyone done any analysis of existing workplace legislation on the use of AI in performance management apart from surveillance? E.g. use of AI tools by managers in performance related emails or performance review documentation etc.? And even how to spot its use where it hasn't been disclosed? What's the lay of the legal land here? Any cases yet?

I am in a marriage gone bad and my husband refuses to get a divorce, and refuses to move into a separate room for the 12 month no fault divorce, i am not sure what i can do, as i have no friends, family or money to move into a place of my own. Does anyone know if this can be fixed, i am scared. Sorry if it doesnt make sense, i am not good at typing. Thank you for any help

P.s. because i forgot mentiom, i am on the disablity pension and in disability housing

​

My father is a real estate agent and multiple times I see my name's on certain documents from our accountant, and he makes me sign these documents.

Every time I pry he tells me not to worry, and to sign it, because I'm afraid to start an argument I sign them regardless.

Recently I asked my mother about it, and she said my dad apparently uses me and my brothers name to move money around to avoid paying in a higher tax bracket, my question is what the fuck do I do?

Im 19 and I'm seriously worried this can affect me, and I don't support my dad doing shit like this in the slightest, so what am I supposed to do to potentially make someone look into this?

Hey guys. My husband is a permanent full time employee and his manager gets angry with him if he takes any kind of sick leave. One morning he woke up violently ill from about 2am and called in obviously sick. His manager told him he needed to provide more advanced notice. He only took one day (it wasn’t a Monday or Friday) but they demanded he get a medical certificate, which he did.

He hardly takes sick leave (maybe four times in the four years) so he currently has a lot of sick leave accrued.

Yesterday, I woke up very ill and needed to go to the doctor/hospital quite urgently. My husband went in and asked if he could take the day off (obviously I got a medical certificate) and explained exactly what was going on with me (which they shouldn’t be entitled to but I thought it might help them understand) but told him that they would have taken a day of work off of him forcing him to take 8 hours of unpaid leave.

That doesn’t seem legal. I spoke to a union because I keep telling him he needs to join one and even they said that with the almost 200 hours of sick leave available and a medical certificate, he should have been allowed to take the leave.

The whole reason they have that policy of taking a full day of work off of someone if they call in sick on a Friday, regardless of what is happening, is because of a worker who is an active drug user who consistently takes Fridays off but they have yet to take a day of work off of the drug user. And yes he is a drug user because he has overdosed while at work but the owner refuses to do any kind of drug testing. That guy is a mess.

Anyway, besides looking into a union, I just need advice of how to help my husband because he’s ready to quit but I told him that if he does, he loses all of that sick leave and he shouldn’t have to go into work sick or not be able to use carers leave to take care of family (we both work full time) for fear of punishment.

If I left anything out, please feel free to ask questions.

So long story short I've been suffering depression and anxiety for some time. About three weeks ago I had a breakdown where I attempted an overdose (unsuccessfully obviously) and was hospitalized. Today, I am under the care of a hospital psychologist (outpatient appointment once a week) and am feeling better than ever. I was supposed to pick up my daughter this afternoon to care for her while her mother, my ex-wife, was attending a party. I arrived to find my daughter instead in the care of her cousins and they had no idea why I was there. I texted my ex asking wtf was going on? Two hours later she called and said she forgot to inform me of the change of plans. And then dropped the bombshell: I can't see my daughter without supervision. And this is the story as I understand it that she gave me...

She has apparently engaged a lawyer to get advice about how safe she is under my care. Her lawyer has told her that he can see that someone (we don't know who, and she is saying it is not her) has filed a report to child services against me for being an unsafe parent. And her lawyer advised her that she could be reported for allowing me to care for her, given that there is a report lodged against me. As a result, I have no access to my daughter. I was totally blown away by this because no one has contacted me about this at all. How on earth can she find out this information about me that I don't even know about? It seems fishy.

I won't be able to call legal aid until Tuesday due to the public holiday on Monday, but I'm feeling really stressed about this and hope someone can clarify what all this means. I'm guessing this must be some sort of mandatory reporting performed by either the police or the hospital (assuming she is telling the truth and it is not her), as I don't know who else it could be? Let me be clear that I did not attempt the overdose until she was outside of my care. I have never physically or verbally assaulted my daughter in public or private. Again, this is just a 'report', no investigation is happening as far as I'm aware of, but why tf have I not been informed?

I'm not sure what to do, can anyone give me any advice? it looks like I won't be seeing my daughter any time this weekend, which I'm quite upset about. Thanks.