Legal Insights & News

Wills get all the attention, but the document that most often saves Queensland families from disaster is the Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA). We see the consequences of not having one every month - and none of them are pretty. Horror Story 1: The Frozen Bank Accounts A Gold Coast husband suffers a stroke; the family business account, the mortgage offset, everything - is in his sole name. His wife cannot pay school fees, the mortgage, or the carers. Without an EPA, no bank will let her touch his accounts, no matter how long the marriage or how joint their lives have been. The only remedy is a QCAT administration application 1 - tribunal process taking months, ongoing annual reporting obligations to the Public Trustee-supervised regime, legal costs, and a stranger-in-the-system feeling - just to do what a two-page document would have allowed overnight.

Most Wills leave everything outright - “to my wife, then my children in equal shares.” Simple, but for many Queensland families, outright gifts quietly destroy value: a young adult beneficiary divorces and the inheritance joins the property pool; a beneficiary in business is sued and the estate pays; adult children on the top marginal tax rate receive an income-producing asset and hand a chunk to the ATO. A testamentary trust - a trust created by your Will, coming into existence only on your death - fixes all three.

Justice Michael Lee ordered the parties in the $100M McDonald’s class action to explore AI for case management. Here is what overseas precedent, professional liability risks, and technology standards mean for Australian firms.

An $89 pair of camera glasses just sold out at Kmart, months after Meta’s Ray-Bans made AI-enabled recording eyewear mainstream. Here is what Australian law actually says about where you can point them, whether the recording light means anything, whether it matters if you are vision impaired, and why Queensland has almost no dedicated law covering any of it.

An AI assistant asked to book a gym class hacked the website instead. Here is who faces liability under Australian cyber, civil, and criminal law.

A Sydney judge caught ChatGPT inventing a case about his own judgment. The reaction has been to blame the tool. Read closely, the two judgments involved show the real story is about training and accountability, not the software.

AI-generated search summaries and chatbot answers can quietly publish false allegations to users who may never realise the information is wrong. This guide explains the emerging law of AI defamation in Queensland and Australia, comparative developments in the United States and Germany, and what individuals and businesses should do when reputational harm may be occurring in real time.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s 15 July 2026 address at the University of Sydney announced a new national framework of Australian Standards for AI, a dedicated Office of AI, and a firm commitment to copyright protection for creators. This guide sets out what was actually announced, how it fits within Australia’s existing copyright and technology law framework, and the significant legal questions that remain unresolved for businesses, creators and AI developers.

A detailed Queensland guide to probate, challenging wills, family provision claims, and why common estate planning strategies are not right for everyone.