Crownmark Lawyers | Commercial & Property The sale of a small business tends to end the same way. Stock is counted, staff are transferred, the incoming operator signs the assignment of lease, the landlord consents, and the keys change hands. Everyone shakes hands and the file is closed. Two years later a letter arrives from the landlord's solicitor about rent arrears at premises the seller has not set foot in since. The business that owes the money is not theirs and has not b

Crownmark Lawyers | Immigration Law Division The Department of Home Affairs has introduced Ministerial Direction 119, which changes the order in which certain skilled visa and nomination applications are processed. The Direction commenced on 25 July 2026 and replaced Ministerial Direction 105. It applies to eligible applications lodged from that date, as well as earlier applications that had not been finally determined. A key change is that processing priority now depends on

Crownmark Lawyers | Commercial and Employment Disputes A hire that started well does not always end well. Sometimes a valued employee leaves on bad terms, challenges the way they were let go, or disputes something in their agreement after the fact. For many business owners, this is the moment they discover what the workplace dispute system actually feels like from the employer's side of the table. It can be a surprise. The system is accessible and inexpensive for the employee

Crownmark Lawyers | Property & Conveyancing Most people think the legal work on a property ends at settlement. Contracts are exchanged, the loan is drawn down, the keys change hands, and the file is closed. What that view misses is that owning property in Victoria carries its own ongoing obligations, ones that exist independently of how or why the property was bought, and that keep applying for as long as you hold it. In 2026, several of those obligations have widened in scop

Crownmark Lawyers | Family Law Reforms Victoria The most significant changes to family law property settlements in roughly half a century took effect on 10 June 2025. A year is long enough for the early uncertainty to settle and for the courts to show, through their decisions, how the new rules actually work in practice. For anyone living in Victoria now, the picture is clearer than it was, and in several respects it is materially different from the law that applied to frien

Crownmark Lawyers | Immigration Law Division If your Australian visa has been refused or cancelled, the next step is often time-sensitive. From 1 July 2026, application fees for the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) have increased, meaning applicants should now expect higher costs when applying for a review of certain immigration decisions. An ART review is not the same as lodging a new visa application. It is a process where the Tribunal reviews a decision made by the Dep

Crownmark Lawyers | Immigration Law Division Australian visa application charges increased from 1 July 2026. For many applicants, this means lodging a visa application now costs more than it did before the new financial year. Before submitting an application or making payment, applicants should check the current government fee and understand the total cost involved. Updated Visa Application Charges from 1 July 2026 Visa category Subclass Fee before 1 July 2026 Fee from 1 July

Crownmark Lawyers | National Disability Insurance Scheme If you’re a participant, carer or provider operating within the National Disability Insurance Scheme right now, the landscape has shifted and it keeps shifting frequently in ways that are not apparent until the impact has already landed. This article sets out what has actually shifted, what it means for your situation, and when the choice of who advises you starts to matter. The first is the scale of the reform. The ND

Crownmark Lawyers | Wills & Estate Planning Most people treat a Will as a task that is done once and then filed away. You sign it, you put it somewhere safe, and you assume the question is settled. The difficulty is that a Will is not a static document. It interacts with the law as it stands when you die, with the assets you actually hold at that point, and with the family circumstances of the moment, none of which look the way they did when you signed. In 2026, several of th