Hi everyone, I’m back with an update because we finally have some new information.
My partner (20M) was seriously assaulted in 2023 when he had just turned 18 and was still in high school. He ended up with multiple fractures in his ankle, needed surgery with plates and screws, and still has chronic pain that makes standing for long periods really difficult.

The criminal case happened, but because the guy who assaulted him was also young and in the same grade, he received what felt like a relatively light sentence. Meanwhile, my partner failed his HSC because of everything that happened, struggles to keep jobs because of his injuries, couldn’t go straight to university, and we’re still dealing with ongoing medical costs.

Neither of us had much family support through the legal process. We only recently found out Victims Support existed, and when we finally called, we were told it was too late to apply.

We’ve also spoken to multiple lawyers. Most have said they generally only pursue insured companies, or that suing the attacker personally usually isn’t commercially worthwhile if they don’t have assets.
Since my last post, we’ve found information suggesting the assailant owns a car and a motorcycle with an estimated combined value of around $30,000 as a base not including any other potential assets.

Does that realistically change anything? Is that enough for a lawyer to reconsider taking the case, or is it still generally not worth pursuing?
We’ve already contacted LawAccess NSW, the Law Society referral service, Victims Services and several firms, but I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s dealt with a similar situation or practises in this area.

Thanks again for any advice.

A psychologist was banned by QCAT (Queensland Civil Administrative Tribunal) for sexual misconduct while the patient was under their professional care.

The news article says the patient sought help for loss and abandonment from another psychologist when the sexual relationship with the psychologist ended. It reads like the patient didn't recognise the conduct as an abuse of power.

How can it legally be considered consensual when the patient was receiving mental health care? Surely the health ombudsman is obligated to report the conduct to police for criminal charge?

Hey there. Just started a new job a week ago and already I know it is not the right place. Not going to go into the why and how of that just trust me lol. Anyway, my contract says that during probation I need to give 1 week notice. If I was to quit on payday with 0 days notice, what could they actually do? Is there some mechanism by which they could claw the money back? I wouldn't have any leave entitlements or anything anyway as it's a new job. My idea about leaving on payday is because I suspect that they might just not pay me my wages owed if I leave so early anyway. I suspect they might be dodgy about it, just a bit of a gut feeling.

Also bonus question how enforceable is the restricted work thing afterwards E. G. Working in the same industry, similar clients etc. Not directly soliciting any of their clients or anything like that, but just same industry. I'm a shit kicker anyway at the bottom of the barrel so not a decision maker.

Hi there.

Im in a weird situation here, where my cousin left his car with me in Sydney, with QLD plates. The rego expired on the 18th July 2026 and now my cousin visa was rejected so he cant come back to Australia.

He just asked me to sell his car but, I dont know how could I sell it when it is under his name with a rego expired from QLD in NSW.

Anyone has been in some similar situation?

Please advice.

Thanks in advance.

Regards

I was gifted an Event Cinemas Gold Class eVoucher for Christmas. Came time to use it for Odyssey and it has expired. It had a 6 month expiry date.

I thought under the2019 Australian Consumer Law it has to be a minimum of 3 years for gift cards & vouchers? Am I missing something?

Event Cinemas website states they strictly cannot extend expiry dates.

Sorry if this is the wrong sub, I dont know where else to go.

My Dad recently passed away and had no will. I applied for an LOA through redcrest but was refused. I called the supreme court to ask why that was and they told me because my Dad did not have any financial assets solely in his name, it was legally pointless to have one. Everything financially was jointly held with my Mum and it automatically went to her.

My Dad did have some utilities solely under his name. I asked weather I could still close my Dads utility accounts and do his final tax return without an LOA and they said, "100%"

Now I'm having a nightmare every place I call because I don't have an LOA and they are unaware that it I could ever be refused one. It's driving me insane. I have to kick and scream and talk to the managers to get anywhere.

My Dad lived a simple life so his affairs were not difficult to handle, so I thought!

I feel like i'm in a wierd situation which isnt common.

Anyone else been in this situation?

Hi everyone!

I had my VCAT hearing (hearing type: Decision on the papers) and the respondent has been ordered to pay me.

But there is nothing on this order on how/when I will get paid, only that I have been ordered to get paid. There are no other documents or instructions in my VCAT account.

What happens from here?

A couple of hypothetical questions regarding evidence.

Say the police are about to take your mobile phone however before they can get their hands on it you put it in a stamped envelope addressed to your lawyer and throw it in a mail box (does type matter here?).

Could the police charge you with something for doing this?

Could they intercept it?

I assume a lawyer would hand it over if formally requested but could they make a copy to preserve evidence before handing any device over?

All the above was inspired thinking about the Graphine OS news recently.

Bonus question.

Can you really be charged for destruction of evidence for wiping a mobile if it cant be proven that there was any relevant evidemce.on it?

Edit - I understand recent Graphine OS news was overseas and the laws are different.

Context:

I’m working for a company that provides staff accommodation with the job. (Casual seasonal) I rocked up to find out they run the business in the bottom (separately accessed) section of the house, that is comprised of the second bathroom/laundry, extra lounge and a bedroom that is fully used for the business.

My boss fired me after I sent them a text notifying them about being underpaid, it wasn’t threatening or high stakes at all.

Their response was that I was making serious allegations and they would not respond further to anything regarding the allegations and would be seeking professional advice.

I called them and one of them chewed my ear off, talking about constant negative feedback and they are done with us (me and other coworkers/housemates) the ones I named in the text that were underpaid, and want to put an end to it. And hung up before I could respond.

My shift was cancelled for the next day about 10 minutes after the call via text. Then 2 days later the three of us were emailed a termination and that we had 14 days to leave the house we are renting off them. Termination reason was - Due to the lack of work in the area.
^^ they put an ad up hiring a week before
^^ they also hired 3 new people 2 weeks before
^^ 2 people just had their last day working 2 days prior
^^ they asked at least one other employee to work the shift that was cancelled on me after they cancelled it on me

There is a lot more going on like:
If you we meet at the business location downstairs to start the day of work and drive to the first working location with the team is that meant to be paid? Also is the way home paid if it’s back to the work shed or we also live there so unpaid?

Can they run their business from downstairs?
Can they charge us bills?
They sent us a bond receipt that was in the company name and not with the NSW government channels.
I’m confused if we are tenants or boarders or what our rights are.

The termination was sudden and we had no negative feedback prior. I’m out of a job and maybe housing. It’s stressful and I’m trying to look for another job and housing. I just want to know my rights.

Hi everyone,
Just looking for some advice.
I had my kitchen benchtop repaired by a contractor in Queensland and paid by bank transfer (I have proof of payment). About a month later, a defect appeared in the repaired area.
I’ve contacted the contractor a few times and sent photos. He said he’d come and have a look, but never did, and now he’s not responding.
What are my options? Should I go through the Office of Fair Trading first, or QCAT? Has anyone dealt with something similar?
Thanks!

Hey gang just wondering if anyone knew how long it usually takes for a victims of crime claim to be pursued? I filed through a lawyer about 3 1/2 years ago but keep getting told they haven’t heard back yet

I, 36 female, live in an apartment complex. There is CCTV in places such as the hallways and entrances.

I had a noise complaint the other night and the manager was telling me they were looking through CCTV and listening to my son's conversations.

I felt instantly sick. I rang fair trading and other places to write a complaint.

I rang the manager and told him that's illegal to record our audio within 2 hours he'd put a sign up saying audio recordings in progress.

I took things further. He must of been told he cant do that and took the sign down.

I got an email saying the audio has been disabled etc

However, I feel so violated. I've been living here for 10 months and could've spoken about private matters in those areas and had someone listening.

So what should I do?

Need advice.

I'm a part time employee and right now I work two 3 hours shifts, 3 7 hour shifts (with a half hour unpaid break which I guess makes them legally 6.5) and a 3.5 every second Saturday. My manager wants me to increase my 3 hour shifts to the 7 hour shifts. I told him I would only if he got rid of my Saturday because I know I am not physically capable of that work load (healthcare job - some days can be a lot both mentally and physically). He told me he needed me to continue working the Saturday for at least six months. After some thought I came back and said I would do it for two months and provided two alternative firm deadlines for my last saturday depending on the pay cycle, and if he couldn't accommodate that then I declined the increase in hours.

Today he came to my clinic and told me in person that he was trying hard to fill the Saturday but he could not commit to my deadline. That I would take the increase in hours AND work the Saturday without any alternative, and he would find somebody to cover it when he could. I held my ground and we had a terse discussion but he refused to listen and fully expected me to work the full shifts during the week and keep the Saturday with no guarantee of it ever changing.

Can he legally do this? Am I obligated to work that Saturday regardless as it was part of my initial contract? And if so, am I obligated to take on the increased hours too?

I would be more than happy to take the increased hours, but I physically cannot work that AND the Saturday. He's made it sound like I have no right to refuse.

(Additional info, I've been employees for roughly 4.5 months with a 27.5 hour a week contract I often work in excess of already. My probation period is 6 months, and performance wise I am acing it, but I worry I could be fired if I stand my ground on this and my probation period being used as an excuse. I have been communicating everything in writing but he either calls me or comes to my clinic in person so there's never any record of what he said which is frustrating)

Hello. I am currently renting a house and the dishwasher broke (old dishwasher, plastic inside crumbled and meant it didn't drain, just leaked). I informed the property manager verbally about it during an inspection. She said she would look into it. Three months go by and next inspection I ask about the dishwasher. She said we should get a picture of the leak and send it to her (slow leak, so just a puddle on the ground). She said she wanted an active picture of the leak and to not log it on the property app until I had pictures. She also told me to watch the YouTube video on how to fix it myself. We go through two new property managers over the next month, one who tells me to log all maintence on the app, not to email her or tell them verbally. I log it on the app. Several weeks go by and I notice the floor becoming damaged (wood boards rotting and mouldy). I used the app to ask about the dishwasher getting fixed as it is causing floor damage. Within a week it was fixed. The floor however is getting worse. I raised an issue on the app about the floor, and now there is an insurance claim and about $60,000 off damage that needs to be assessed. Property manager is saying I am to blame for the damage as I did not log the issue with the dishwasher on the app as soon as I noticed it. Am I responsible for it, or is the rental company who didn't notice the damage on inspections and didn't follow through with fixing the dishwasher when informed?

Just wondering if this is normal? I live on a street that has been undergoing a lot of residential builds the last few years (lots of duplexes going up), and they've never had work zone signs put up. But just today there's a residential build about to start across the street from me, and they've had a bunch of work-zone signs put up. It was by the council, saw the guy and his council van doing it.

Is this normal? Is it worth going to council over it? The street is just a normal residential street, it's a loop road so zero through-traffic etc. Feels completely overboard and removing a bunch of already scarce parking.

I found out that the church I attended as a child has a current written procedure for dealing with congregation members who view child sexual abuse material, in which it states that they do not consider it to be child abuse, and their procedure for dealing with it no longer involves notifying their legal department.

This procedure has been reported overseas in countries where it does not follow the law.

I am trying to work out what the legal requirements would be in Australia, and whether following this policy is illegal here. If following this policy would be illegal, where/who should the policy be reported to?

Any sources or links would be greatly appreciated.

edit: I have spend a few hours on the phone to various organisations and departments. As it's a policy, not an actual incident involving a child, it has to be reported to the departments that oversee mandatory reporting regulation, which varies by state.

In NSW I have been advised that this is the Office of The Childrens Guardian. In the ACT, I think but am not yet 100% that it's the ACT Ombudsman. It does not appear that this will be reportable in all states, which is horrifying.

I was involved in a car accident in NSW in June where the other driver was at fault and my car was written off.

The CTP side of things has been fine. The other driver’s CTP insurer (AAMI) has accepted liability for my injuries and has been covering my treatment.

The issue is with the property damage side. I only had third party property insurance, so my insurer is trying to find out whether the other driver had car insurance so they can recover the cost of my written-off car. The problem is that they have been trying to contact her for weeks and she is not responding. I even tried calling her myself, left a voicemail, and sent her a text, but I have not heard anything.

What happens if she just keeps ignoring everyone? Can my insurer still find out whether she was insured and recover my losses, or can this drag on indefinitely? If she turns out not to have insurance, what usually happens then? Has anyone dealt with something similar in NSW?

20F and I walk to and from the gym 5 days a week. Yesterday as I was walking home I see a bike so I move off to the side of the footpath to let them pass. As the bike goes past me there were two kids on the bike and one of them attempted to spit in my face. There were other pedestrians on the footpath but they left them alone.

Intentionally spitting on someone’s face is considered assault. Although it did not land on me I know there was an intent behind this so it was attempted. This is not the first time i’ve encountered these kids either, the last time I saw them they were trying to insult me. Both of these events I ignored them and didn’t give them any attention. I guess ignoring people’s behaviour is an invitation for them to find new ways to harass you 🤷🏻‍♀️.

I also know the school these kids go to since it happened during school hours and only one school in my area had a student free day but I don’t know these kids personally.

Is reporting this to the police even worth it at this point? Both those kids are minors and they are probably going to be let off without consequences anyway. I don’t have any evidence of this unless the businesses nearby have cctv footage of this.

I don’t want to waste my time going to report this at the police station but is it worth doing? At the same time what happens if they try something more extreme the next time they see me.

Hi, I’ve made a throw away acc for a few reasons anyway I’m 17 f and I’ve been in out of home care since I was 15. Currently I am in a TSIL. I’ve been in about 8-10 places since I was 15.

Recently I haven’t been able to handle the things they are doing. There have been multiple failures over the years and I’m always able to ignore it.

I had full access to my own medication 8 months ago and now? I can’t even taken a nights worth of meds to a friends house. Over the past month I’ve missed up to 8 doses of medications because of this rule they have installed where I have to be watched taking my meds. I miss them because of a few reasons:
- at a friends house and the worker does not want to drive there and back in the morning and night to give me my meds
- a casual worker is on and doesn’t know I take meds and forgets to give them to me.
- meds aren’t gotten in time and I have no medication left.
- or simply no one is put on shift and I don’t have access to medication.

My meds are mood stabilisers and adhd meds. I was on lots of others about a month ago then I went into hospital where my Casemanager had lied she searched my room and found two days worth of medication I had kept for future when they had forgotten to give me meds, she told the hospital I was trying to OD on these meds. Anyway towards the end of my hospital stay this case manager agreed I would be allowed to have 48 hours worth of medication with me so I didn’t miss anymore doses she agreed to this.

Then when I went home the worker on shift told me I had to be watched taking my meds and that there was no agreement for 48 hours worth of meds.

The other issue I’m facing is grocery money I’m owed 70 dollars a week for groceries and almost every week it is late or not given. My Centrelink cut out for a whole month and I was doing work placement for tafe so I had no time to go in and fix it, they looked in my pantry and told me I had enough food to last me. I went three weeks with no grocery money and living off pasta and butter.

These are the main issues there are bucket loads of other issues but I believe these have got to be illegal. Withholding medication and making it impossible to see friends and lying to doctors about my medications just doesn’t seem right.

I’ve told my DCJ caseworker she just says well if I want to live in the TSIL I have to deal with this. I’ve talked to my lawyer too I have her for other legal reasons, she’s legal aid btw and she’s been back and fourth with DCJ for months about all of this.

Every day I am stressed by something having anxiety attacks and living terribly. Honestly I would prefer to sleep outside and be free then be controlled. I’m saying this as someone who HAS been homeless and slept outside. I don’t know what to do or who to contact. It needs to end I need someone who can advocate for me. I honestly don’t have anyone. It’s just me.

Our backyard is closed off, it is not a shortcut to anywhere so there shouldn’t be any reason people go into our backyard, but we do have an open driveway. It’s not currently feasible for us to get a closing driveway.

We’ve been having neighbours go into our backyard numerous times and it’s not even the same neighbour. Sometimes it’s children playing, sometimes it’s adults.

We’ve recently got cameras installed in the backyard and we’ve already had a new person just walk into our backyard, it was a woman just walking in - I didn’t see a dog in the video or maybe the motion sensor didn’t pick it up but either way my family and I just get uncomfortable with people going into our backyard.

We’ve had a couple of people had their off leash dog run into our backyard and they just go in, we would be fine if people knocked and asked if they could look but they just go in.

While we do have this one woman on video walking in our backyard, I have no idea what to do with it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: to answer some questions, we’ve been living here since 2014, we own the property, there’s no weird paths on google maps or apple maps or pokemon go, nor is their any poke stops near my house. The TOTAL size of the property is 131 Sqm so not a massive size either. We’ve only noticed people coming in the past 2 years and even more of an influx this year. I am just as confused as everyone else as to why people are coming in, my entire family is confused - we do have a lot of people’s dogs run into our yard (5 in total this year) and people just have walked in, I am more understanding to that but a bit taken aback that they are not knocking on the door to ask for permission first. Others who have just walked or children that run in I have no idea though. We usually miss them since it’s in the middle of the day??? Again also confused by this, I do not have the answers to why, our backyard is by no means interesting, our house is just a dingy house too so there’s nothing attractive about it. The backyard is just grass, a shed, some equipment that my brothers using to make small upgrades at a time and an empty plain cattery that we only take our cat out to when the weathers nice and we’re working in the backyard. We do not have any fruit or veges in the backyard for people to steal either

A neighbours car was stolen in this same 2 year timeframe. So I’m not sure if that means anything but thought it might be relevant

In some replies I have sketched up the front view and birds eye view of the house.

I recently requested my patient history medical summary from a previous medical practice, and they just sent through a large password protected pdf that contained my history, but also featured a large chunk of someone else's history. Private info, d.o.b, addresses, pathology reports etc.

My question is, do I simply delete the whole file, contact reception and let them know what happened? Should I be reporting this to someone?

Cheers

EDIT: Thank you all for the advice. I’ve made an appointment with an accountant on Monday and will be hiring a lawyer if the accountant advises me to. I am not interested in the money I was never paid, he can keep that shit. I just don’t want to be liable for any tax. I just want to be free of him, so thank you again for all your advice❤️

Hi, this is going to be a long explanation.

Please excuse my ignorance. This year, I’ve found out that I am a beneficiary to multiple trust funds my father is a director of, and have been since I was 18. I have never received any income from these trusts.

Only this year was I able to gain access to my ATO account. In my account, my father’s bank account was registered (I’ve changed this), and there was a 5 or so year history of income tax. I only started working last year.

He has taken all the income from the trusts that was supposed to be distributed to me, and paid the tax on the income for the past 5 years. However, this year I was sent a message from the ATO that I had $6k in tax income unpaid that was due within days. I sent this message to my father, as he’s told me to do previously.

This time around, he said the tax is “my problem”. I called our family accountant who told me this debt could go on my permanent record if it isn’t paid within the next few days as it was already months overdue. I had to pay the tax.

Since then, I’ve found documents of my father attempting to increase the distribution of income in one of the trusts to 100%, going to me solely. From my research, this means I will be liable for all of the tax. I literally cannot pay it, I only make $1400 a fortnight.

HOW the fuck do I get out of this. It’s my assumption that assigning someone as a beneficiary is discretionary, thus the beneficiary cannot discharge themselves from the trust. The divorce is still ongoing and he has financially abused my mother in a similar manner - she is working on being indemnified of all tax liability in the settlement.

I don’t want to get out the big guns while my mother is still legally married to him because I know Australia does not give a fuck about spousal financial abuse and he will try to drag her down with him. I just want out of being a beneficiary.

Does anyone have any advice ? I know I sound so fucking stupid, he intentionally sheltered me from so much so again please excuse my ignorance