Why a kitchen table

Because that's where these jobs actually get done — a folder, a cup of tea, and a family working out what has to happen next.

The method

Most of what a solicitor does in an ordinary estate is organisation, not law: finding the documents, filling in the forms, writing to the bank, keeping the file straight. Families can do that themselves, given a guide that tells them the order of things and the traps. What they can't safely do alone is the handful of moments where the law bites — and at those moments the guide says so, in a red box, and offers one task from a professional at a fixed price.

That's the whole idea. Run the file yourself. Buy professional help by the task.

Who we are

Kitchen Table Law is a business name of Mediation Institute Pty Ltd, Australia's second-largest mediation training and registration organisation. The guides are written by Paul Kenna Law — barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria and the High Court of Australia, AMDRAS mediator and family law arbitrator — and produced with Joanne Law, co-owner of Mediation Institute.

What the guides are, and aren't

They're general information written for a general reader, kept current by twelve months of update notices. They are not legal advice about your situation, and they say clearly where you need some. Every figure that changes each July is checked against the primary source, not a summary of it.