With ever more complex family financial arrangements, increasingly, equitable principles assume significance, and often decisive significance in family court property settlement cases. Unlike proceedings which are governed by the Family Law Act, equitable principles are found in state statutes and, more frequently, the principles which courts exercising equitable jurisdiction have developed over several centuries.

Although the Family Law Act governs the rights and entitlements of parties to a legal or de facto marriage with respect to their property, estates, trusts, corporations, partnerships and other legal relations not involving parties to a legal or de facto marriage are regularly pivotal to the determination of family law property disputes, but not governed by the Family Law Act. The Family Court exercises accrued jurisdiction to decide these disputes, but does so in reliance upon equitable principles which are traditionally the province of state Supreme Courts.

While many texts explore and explain equitable principles, few, if any engage specifically with their operation in the field of family law. This book analyses and explains the equitable principles which apply to disputes between parties to a legal or de facto marriage and third parties, typically family members, with respect to the beneficial ownership of property which may be legally owned by third parties, trusts, companies or other entities.

Drawing on their extensive experience as counsel, senior counsel and Family Court judges, Wilson and Coleman explain the practical implications of the principles, identifying the evidence needed to prove or defeat a claim for equitable relief in the Family Court. The book has been written with family law and general practitioner barristers and solicitors, academics and law students particularly in mind.