Getting divorced is rarely a happy occasion, but many couples at least manage a civilised one. If you can come to a fair settlement without involving the courts and minimising lawyers, everyone will be better off, both financially and emotionally…

Federal Attorney-General George Brandis called on judges and magistrates yesterday to start ruling on custody and property disputes to take pressure off the overloaded family and federal circuit courts…

Modern marriages have become expensive public statements without contractual teeth. Women (and men whose wives have much greater earning potential) have lost the ability to constrain their own or their spouses’ future behaviour…

As Gough Whitlam’s attorney general, he was Australia’s first law officer. Today he and his wife keep his and hers jars of the banned drug Nembutal for the day they decide they want to die..