Consent orders are used to formalise an agreement reached between the disputing parties in a dispute already before the Court. Usually, an alternative dispute resolution setting such as mediation is used to negotiate the agreement. The agreement made by the disputing parties is “handed up&r...

Lawyers will often start conversations and meetings with a request that the conversation is “off the record”. It is important to remember that lawyers will almost always report back to their clients about the conversation and what was said. These conversations are not completely confi...

Mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution that is used to prevent the disputing parties going through a formal trial in Court. Mediation is usually a confidential process that relies on the concept of “off the record” required. It means that information shared, and stateme...

In this case Mr McCowen engaged a Solicitor to draft his Will. He told the Solicitor that he wished to benefit his third wife, give $1,000 to each of his three children from his second marriage, and that he wanted his residuary estate to be shared by the three children from his first marriage. Th...

Mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution. Alternative dispute resolution is a method of resolving disputes outside of the court system. They are often used as a more time efficient, less expensive and more amicable way for resolving a dispute.  There are different types of alter...