r/AusLegalAdvice

I received a parking infringement for parking a heavy vehicle for over 1 hour in a built up residential area. My question is what am I supposed to do for parking? It's a tow truck that I need close to me at all times as I clear accidents and stolen vehicles in Melbourne for the police(I don't work for the police we just have the contracts for it). It is somewhat considered an emergency vehicle but not when it comes to parking.

For context I had parked next to vacant lots to not annoy my neighbours as the spots next to my house are permanently parked in by neighbours. Is there a way I can get out of this fine? Its my first one ever and tbh didn't know it was a thing. Is there a way to be exempt or a permit or something I can do to not have to get random parking fines at 9pm on a Saturday?

Thankyou

Edit: city of whittlesea

I am from New Zealand and have forgotten about this incident but now that I might want to move to Australia in the future, am worried about an accidental theft.

I went to Sydney for a holiday and after finally waiting for the ATM, someone before me left $300 cash in the machine. I panicked as it was beeping and I didn't know what to do so I took it out and the lid closed. After doing my thing on the ATM, I stayed at the branch for up to an hour panicking and unsure what to do with the money. I stayed at the branch and called common wealth telling them the situation and asking them to take $300 from my account and they said they can't do anything. I went on internet banking and told the chat the situation as well. I googled information and they said what I did was a crime because if I had left the money in the ATM, the machine would give it back to the owner.

I remember thinking abut going to the police station but the nearest was too far for me to walk and I may or may not have emailed them. I don't remember if I did. But I know I definitely called the bank and contacted the bank online in an attempt to give it back. I ended up forgetting about it because i didn't think it was a lot of money and the bank didn't want to help and I was going back to NZ that week

Everything was recorded on their security camera and that was why I was afraid to leave the branch without giving the money bCk first but I didn't end up giving it back..

It's been a year now. Will I get in trouble for this down the line ?

I’m looking for some legal advice. I have owned my car since I was 17. When I got my licence, I was working, but was young and immature and didn’t have enough to buy myself a car to get to uni. My parents offered to buy me a car, and I can pay back half (they went 50/50 with my older brother with his first car) I agreed, got the car, and fully paid back my half as soon as I could.

I am now 23, and a very long story short, am no contact with my parents. I got asked to leave their house with about 12 hours notice, and because I couldn’t find a rental, my partner and I moved in with his grandparents while looking for a rental. During our stay (it was two weeks we were there for) my parents randomly rocked up to my partners grandparents house, uninvited. They had no access to my location, or his grandparents address. Now we’re in our rental, they have shown up again.

When they showed up, they let me know that I haven’t paid registration on my car, to the point it’s expired and I have a suspended licence (in the motions of moving out I hadn’t changed my address), and that I have 30 days to get it roadworthy, or they’re going to take me to court personally, as they invested money in the car, and didn’t agree for it to be used illegally. If I sell the car, they will also take me to court. They have also offered to take the car and get it roadworthy themselves (I know that there will be a catch, I just don’t know what at this stage)

My question is, if the car is legally in my name, and the verbal agreement was fulfilled years ago, do they have a standing in court? I obviously know I need to pay my fines and get it looked at my a mechanic, however, I do think it would just be more beneficial to take the car to a wreckers and get what I can for it, as it’s a very old car, and will cost more than it’s worth to get it all up to scratch, however, I don’t want to get sued if they can. obviously I am grateful to my parents for helping me out when I needed them, however, the agreement is fulfilled.

Any and all legal advice is welcome. and I’ll answer any additional questions if necessary! Thank you for reading, I’m sorry it was a long one!

Edit: yes the car is fully in my name. Checked the car for a tracker too, but couldn’t see anything, even had friends come out who know cars better than me and they couldn’t find anything either!

Hi everyone,
I’m an international student in Germany and I’m currently trying to regularize my residence situation with the help of a lawyer.
My lawyer contacted the Ausländerbehörde for the first time almost two months ago (19. Mai) requesting information about my file (Akteneinsicht / case information), and sent a reminder about two weeks ago. So far, there has been no response at all.
My lawyer is currently on vacation, and I’m wondering what is considered normal in Germany.
Has anyone experienced an Ausländerbehörde not responding to a lawyer for this long?
Would you recommend trying to contact the Ausländerbehörde myself just to confirm that they received my lawyer’s request, or is it better to avoid contacting them while I have legal representation?
Thank you in advance

I purchased a brand new motorcycle unregistered which has been sitting on the driveway for several months. Meanwhile, my dad who has borrowed thousands and thousands of dollars from me had sold it reason being he assumes he overpaid me when it came to paying the money back when in reality he borrowed more money the same day he paid in installments.

Bit of a legal question for the AusLegal brains...

My cousin is "Officer AB" from the LECC's Operation Harrisdale report... the one about the NorthConnex tunnel crash.

From what's already public... he was a NSW Police Inspector in a specialist command, crashed an unmarked police car into the crash cushion in the NorthConnex tunnel back in May 2023... the LECC later found serious misconduct, including leaving the scene and allegations about avoiding a breath test... and lying about being on the piss (he said he fell asleep for insurance purposes) he was originally charged with high-range PCA and DUI, but later convicted of the lesser offence of mid-range drink driving in the Downing Centre Local Court in a closed courtroom. The bloke knoked down over 17 drinks down at the Mercantile at the Rocks, was seen dancing at McDonalds on CCTV.

His name's been suppressed, so all the public reports call him "Officer AB"...

Here's what I'm trying to work out...

Because he's my cousin (estranged we don't get on), and I obviously know who he is without reading the news... does the suppression order stop me from telling people who he is??? I mean disclosing his name as AB because I am a family member? is there any lawyers here?

Like...

• Does the order apply to everyone... or mainly the media???
• If a mate asked me who Officer AB is... can I legally tell them... or is that an offence???
• Does it cover private chats at home... down the pub... or just publishing stuff online???
• What about posting on Reddit, Facebook or X... is that automatically a breach???
• If half the family already knows... does that make any difference???
• Can an ordinary person actually get charged or done for contempt for naming someone who's covered by a NSW suppression order???

Not looking to name him here... and not asking whether I should... just genuinely trying to understand how these suppression orders work in NSW... because if they apply to everyone, does that basically mean I can never talk about what my own cousin did???

Anyway he was disqualified from driving for over a year, lost his job.... can you believe he flushed his job down the toilet in one night out with the lads? Inspector of Special Command? What a total GRONK!!!!

I have a friend who's using Claude to research legal matters, despite not being a lawyer. Personally, I think relying on an AI tool alone for legal advice—without the appropriate legal expertise—is one of the more questionable decisions I've seen.

My dad died and in his will left all his money to someone he has never met who lives overseas. We were estranged at the time of his death and were never particularly close as he left when I was still a child.

He has no partner or dependents, and I am his legal next of kin. The will does not explicitly state i am not to inherit anything. It just doesnt mention me at all.

How much of a case do I need to have to contest the will successfully? Is it enough that I am his next od kin?

tia

I’m not from Australia. I reported a security issue to an organization (APP entity) involving a type of personal information about its millions of customers. The organization confirmed the issue but stated that they would not fix it.

I have option to disclose the issue in a write-up, but it requires approval from the organization.

A few weeks ago, I filled up with contaminated fuel (water in the fuel) at a service station in Victoria.
The fuel company has offered to reimburse me for the repairs I’ve already had completed. However, my mechanic believes they should also contribute towards the injectors. The fuel company disagrees, saying my car is older and the injectors have reached the end of their expected lifespan.
At this stage, I’m leaning towards simply accepting their offer, replacing the injectors myself, and moving on—I don’t want to deal with the stress even though the injectors were functioning normally before this incident.
Has anyone been through something similar? Was it worth pursuing through Consumer Affairs Victoria or VCAT, or did the time and effort outweigh the potential outcome? I’d also be interested to hear whether an independent mechanic’s opinion tends to carry much weight in these cases. Thanks in advance for any advice or experiences.

I met my ex 9 years ago, we were friends for 6 years and then we got together 3 years ago after he kissed me when I was with my ex ex and that relationship broke down after 10 years of being with him and moving to another country with him. We were happy, we got engaged Jan 2025 and were set to marry in April 2026. He called the wedding off a week before by sending an email out to the guests before telling me he was actually doing it. We went through a rough couple of weeks and then were trying to make it work but at the end of May he strangled me and pushed me over and we had a physical fight. I didn’t press charges on the night but he took all the money out of the account and then I pressed charges with the police. It’s been 6 weeks now and there’s a court order so we can’t speak to each other. We bought a house together in January and we got a loan for some of it from his dad (who’s very wealthy). I received a letter from his dad’s company with a caveat for the house, apparently his dad can sue both of us for the money we owe. I’m trying my best to get the charges dropped and have been told that can happen but haven’t heard back. But now I’m worried his dad is going to come after me and wondering if I should do it?

One of the biggest misconceptions I see is people saying:
“We’ve only lived together for 18 months, so family law doesn’t apply.”
That’s not always true.
Many people don’t realise there are exceptions to the usual two-year requirement for de facto property claims.
For example, in jurisdictions where de facto relationships can be formally registered, registration may mean the two-year requirement doesn’t apply. There are also other exceptions, such as where there’s a child of the relationship or where one party has made substantial contributions and serious injustice would result if orders weren’t available.
The important point is that the “two-year rule” isn’t an absolute rule.
It’s one of those areas where people often rely on something they’ve heard from a friend or seen online, only to discover later that the law is more nuanced.

Looking for some advice from people who’ve been through a de facto property settlement or work in family law.

I’m currently going through a separation in Queensland (no kids) and have already engaged a family lawyer. Lately, I’ve been wondering whether it’s worth paying for a second opinion.

My concern isn’t that my lawyer is incompetent, but I’m not confident they’re doing everything they can to protect my financial interests or achieve the best possible outcome for me.

The circumstances are:
We jointly own a house with a mortgage.

My ex contributed a significantly larger cash deposit toward the purchase, funded from a previous property sale she owned. However I paid half the mortgage for 4 years whilst living there as “rent”. We sold this home to upgrade to our current home.

I find myself questioning whether there are strategies, arguments or negotiation approaches that another lawyer might identify that my current lawyer hasn’t raised.

I’m conscious that even a relatively small difference in the settlement outcome could be worth tens of thousands of dollars, making the cost of a second opinion seem worthwhile if it improves my position.

For those who’ve been through something similar:
Did you get a second legal opinion? Is there any etiquette involved?

Did it provide a different perspective or strategy?
Were there signs your original lawyer wasn’t protecting your interests as well as they could have?
At what point did you decide to stick with your lawyer or change firms?

I simply want to be confident that I’m receiving the best advice available before making decisions that will affect me financially for years to come.
I’d really appreciate hearing others’ experiences.

Hey everyone, I am looking for some insight from anyone who has gone down the award underpayment rabbit hole in the tech space.

For context I am covered under the Professional Employees Award 2020 as a Technical Support Engineer with over five years of solid SaaS experience and operate with high autonomy. HR just confirmed to me in writing that my formal classification is Level 3, but looking at my salary, I have estimated that I am currently short by around 8k for this classification level alone. Because of this shortfall, they definitely cannot claim any all-in salary exemptions for overtime or allowances either.

It originally took HR a full month to answer my basic question about what award I am on before they finally cracked and confirmed Level 3 (literally on July 1st) I have since sent a formal email requesting my historical classification data and award mapping since I started with the business in 2024 so I can audit my historical placement. Naturally, they have gone completely dark. The absolute kicker here is that my employer is literally a major workforce management, automated compliance, and payroll software company. You honestly cannot make this shit up.

I want to know if there is any weird legal loophole where an employer can classify you as Level 3 in writing but pay you below the baseline because you rely on equivalent experience instead of a formal degree. If they try to walk back their written confirmation and claim I am actually Level 2 to cover their payroll error, how does the FWO view that kind of retaliation? Finally, if they ghost my data request for a week or so, should my next step be a formal Letter of Demand or should I go straight to lodging an FWO dispute? Keen to hear from any payroll compliance experts or anyone who has dealt with tech award underpayments.

Cheers.

Yesterday I was in the NSW Supreme Court as a self-represented litigant against the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) in Charlie Armstrong Adams v Law Enforcement Conduct Commission... Supreme Court of NSW Case No. 2025/416293... After hearing both sides, Justice Richardson reserved her decision, so now it's just a waiting game... could be weeks... could be months... who knows!!! The case wasn't about whether my complaint against NSW Police was true or false... it was about whether LECC made a lawful decision and whether that decision is capable of judicial review. My whole argument was pretty simple... LECC can't properly decide a complaint if it doesn't first identify and understand the substance of the complaint!!! Their September 2025 decision letter listed one of my issues as "Police have misused the informant status on a suspect." The problem is... that related to the Geekstar internet café in George Street Sydney CBD... which was only background information showing a pattern of events... it wasn't the substance of my complaint at all!!! My complaint was about the Auburn/Lidcombe massage parlour allegations and what I say were subsequent investigative failures... completely different venue... around 10's of kilometres away... yet I argued LECC seemed to focus on the Geekstar issue instead. I submitted that before LECC could classify my complaint as "Not Notifiable", decide there was no serious misconduct or serious maladministration and refuse any further review... they first had to correctly identify what complaint they were actually deciding. I also argued that if they misunderstood or mischaracterised my complaint, procedural fairness should have required they give me an opportunity to clarify it before making a final decision... because if I had been given that chance I could have explained that Geekstar was only background information and that the real complaint was about the massage parlour allegations... and there's a real chance this Supreme Court case would never have even existed. The defendants relied heavily on the Mendonca, Hastwell and my previous Adams v HCCC cases... but I argued those cases are all well and good... however they weren't built around an alleged misunderstanding or mischaracterisation of the substance of a complaint like I say happened here. I also submitted that if I lose... there should be no order as to costs... because I had to come to the Supreme Court simply to try and clarify what I say was a misunderstanding that could have been fixed by a review... and in my view that sends a better message than punishing members of the public who use lawful court processes to resolve disputes. Anyway... now it's all in Justice Richardson's hands... judgment reserved... fingers crossed I'll definitely post the judgment here when it comes out because I think it'll be an interesting decision on judicial review, procedural fairness and the obligations of complaint-handling bodies when someone argues the complaint itself has been misunderstood... we'll see what happens!!!

We have a retaining wall which perished long before we purchased. The wall sits on the boundary and originally supported the fence, we are the high side. NSW

We did plan to replace it as soon as we moved in but soon discovered the neighbours are aggressive/awful and it was put in the too hard basket and we moved onto other things.

The neighbours have since asked us to replace the wall at full cost to us (including refusal to pay for fencing). We have been reluctant due to concerns
- full cost on us
- accessing their property to do the work (they gave permission but given their behaviour in past we don’t feel comfortable). However we usually do this kind of work ourselves to make costs manageable
- They have a lot of trees right on the boundary and they will impede working access, we don’t want to be responsible for damaging roots or allow their trees to damage the wall we have paid for. There is also a giant white bird of paradise which currently protrudes through the boundary with limbs cascading about 5m into our property and touching the ground

Yesterday he changed his tune and agreed to pay half for fencing and when I said the retaining wall was a shared responsibility he carried on and said I’ll hear from his solicitor.

My ultimate goal would be 50% cost share on everything.

The reason I think he has responsibility is because he originally sub divided and sold off land.(70s/80s) When he did this he modified the landscape which created the need for the retaining wall. He has also told us that he built the original retaining wall.

Where do we stand in this and how do we address this? We can’t afford to go down a costly legal path and it seems impractical given that money could be used to do the work.

As VCAT only can issue orders and is unable to recover loss for a building owner, is there any instances of loss recovery from dodgy builders which would not pay. In VIC/Australia, a dodgy builder can close its business on Friday and then can restart with a new name on Monday. As such, it looks like loss recovery is impractical or impossible. Do you know about any success?

Hey I have been working at a company for 2 years recently they started to reduce my shifts, and just now they told me that they will put me on an unpaid hold , i'm allowed to take all my annual leave during this time but afterwards that they wont pay me anything, so i'm confused why noy just fire me? I believe the company is still gonna be open but they will have a lot less worker, so why are they doing this? Is it legal to just put someone on hold without paying them?

Coming here because I really don’t know what else to do. My mother has gotten out of a (mostly verbally) abusive relationship a few months ago. They owned a house together (still being paid off) and 2 cars. They were defacto. My mums recently become disabled to the point where she cannot work, but prior to this she always made more money than him. When they split, they both had basically no liquid money. Since my mum had no income and it took her awhile to get on Centrelink, she’s been struggling with bills that he isn’t paying his share of, I’ve payed for her and her pets food, etc. he still has his income but also his mummy pays for whatever he wants (like lawyers and a new car when he broke his, which he now wants my mum to pay for). Originally he agreed to just do mediation with my mum, she spent months hurting herself to get the house clean and I’ve helped her with packing and dump runs. He’s done nothing, he left his stuff there when he went because she got a dvo put on him and he knew he’d break it if he stayed. After months of him ignoring her messages asking for help she gets a message from his lawyer, asking about assets and transaction history and giving her a week to try and list the house for sale (there are repairs that need to be done but this has just forced her to rush into valuations losing them both money).
Now comes the question. My mum has called a lot of lawyers and tried to get legal aid but it was all denied. She has no money. I can’t afford lawyers. So is this just how it is? Does she have to go into the mediation, which she already can’t pay for, with no lawyer? Does he just get to walk all over her because his mother pays for everything? Does the domestic abuser always win if they have money in Aus?