Welcome to the 2010 Law Handbook Online, published by the Fitzroy Legal Service. Law Handbook Online contains a summary of areas of the law that most often affect people in everyday life. It is designed for the consumer who wants to be better informed about the law and more self-reliant in using it. Law Handbook Online is also a useful resource for people with many different interests - lawyers, teachers, students and community workers - or people who simply have an interest in a particular area of law.

Law Handbook Online (the online version of The Law Handbook) follows a tradition established by the Legal Resources Book in 1977. The original editors, Julian Gardner, David Neal and Peter Cashman, deserve congratulations for their valuable initiative. We acknowledge the efforts of past and ongoing contributors - all practising professionals with specific expertise in their fields of law - and value readers' suggestions for further improvements.

The law is constantly changing and it can be misleading and sometimes very expensive to rely on out-of-date information. That's why we produce a new edition each year. The 2010 edition has had major revisions made to chapters dealing with same-sex and de facto families (5*3), neighbours and noise (10*2), credit and finance (13), employment conditions (15) and disabilities (16), to highlight just a few. This edition also includes added sections dealing with the impact of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) on Victorian legislation. All chapters have been reviewed for 2010 and, where required, updated.

The law in this edition of Law Handbook Online is considered current as at 30 June 2009. Areas where the law is likely to change in the future have been flagged. To find out if particular laws have changed, you can obtain free information from community legal centres and Victoria Legal Aid (see: Chapters 2*3 Legal Aid and 2*4 Advice Directory for contact details).

Note: Chapters have been grouped into related topics covering particular areas of daily life. For example, the topic of "Managing Your Money" includes chapters dealing with social security payments, debts and bankruptcy, superannuation and taxation.

ISBN: 978-0-9805588-4-5