I need some legal advice.

[foreigncorrespondent]

I am guessing that the information I am after would come under family law, but it is just a guess.

As many of you know Sapphocrat and I are a same sex binational couple. We know in order to protect our interests we need to draw up Power of Attorney's, wills, etc. But what we don't know is how does this kind of thing work when one half of a couple lives in the USA and the other half lives in Australia. Does anyone know or does anyone know of a Web site that has this information?

It is really important for us to get this organized. I want to know that if anything happens to me Sapphocrat will get everything I have. And if I am hospitalized and am incapable of talking for myself, that it is Sapphocrat making all the medical proceedure decisions for me. She is the one person who knows me 100%, and would be able to direct the docotrs in the right direction for what would make me happy.

Thank you.

FC

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Get a lawyer.

A good one. This is too complex for even a good lawyer to advise you over the web.

You got state law, tax law, estate law, international law, Australian law, and maybe immigration law involved. And some very tricky medical stuff.

Someone's going to have to write a very good will and do some serious estate planning.

[7th_Sephiroth]

2. hire a lawayer

too complicated, must furi Kuri

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Is there one standard of law that you need to utilize or will you need to

have a series of legal documents that are enforceable, one for the U.S. and one for Australia? You need a lawyer to advise you of international law and laws of your respective countries.

You are very wise to take preparations now before you need assistance. That's devotion.

[E_Zapata]

4. Get an atty in the US, and get an atty in OZ

Start out with the US documents and get those nailed down.

Then work on the docs for OZ, and maybe the US docs are interchangeable.

But the BEST thing to do would be to get in touch with american expatriates in OZ (they always have websites) because they undoubtedly have thought this through -- having to make contingencies for whether they fall ill or die in the US or OZ.....