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Jeff became a partner in the firm in 1991 and later took over the running of the personal injuries department, which at that stage had 16 lawyers. Jeff later became one of the first lawyers to become a dual accredited Law Society specialist in personal injury law in both New South Wales and Queensland.
Throughout his career, Jeff has also had extensive experience in commercial litigation matters involving all types of different disputes and issues. It is through his experience in the litigation area that led him to his current area of expertise, Estate Litigation. The powerful Wills & Estates Department of Attwood Marshall Lawyers has some of the most experienced and knowledgeable lawyers in this complex area. The Wills & Estates department is larger than most legal firms and practices exclusively in Wills & Estate matters in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
He is the architect behind the firm’s electronic systems and the firm’s wish to become a paperless office.
Jeff became the managing partner of Attwood Marshall Lawyers in 1998 and has continued in that role since that time. His experience in running a multi-million dollar turnover business has enabled him to provide years of practical experience to our various business and corporate clients.
Jeff is an avid thoroughbred racehorse breeder and has a boutique stud at Mudgeeraba in the Gold Coast Hinterland. It is his experience in the thoroughbred industry that has triggered the development of Attwood Marshall Lawyers specialist division in thoroughbred breeding and racing.
Although Jeff still has an active file load in litigation matters, his main duties of more recent times are concentrated on running the business and continually improving the systems and training of our employees to ensure that we deliver the best possible legal services.
Jeff is enthusiastic about innovation and continuously challenges the status quo to ensure Attwood Marshall Lawyers is at the forefront of legal technology.
Attwood Marshall Lawyers Legal Practice Director, Jeff Garrett, discussed Public Trustee issues with award winning investigative journalist Anne Connolly on Four Corners.
ABC News Presenter Laura Tchilinguirian interviewed Attwood Marshall Lawyers Legal Practice Director Jeff Garrett about a significant legal case involving Disney World in the United States.
The case centred on Disney’s argument that a man cannot sue them over his wife’s death, which occurred after she suffered a fatal allergic reaction when eating at a restaurant within the Disney World Park in October 2023.
Disney is defended itself by citing the terms and conditions of the Disney+ app, which the widower of the deceased subscribed to during a one-month free trial in 2019. These terms and conditions require that any disputes be resolved through arbitration rather than through the courts.
In this interview, Laura and Jeff delve into how arbitration works, why Disney is fighting for this method instead of a court trial, the connection between the Disney+ app’s terms and conditions and the wrongful death incident, and what consumers should be mindful of when agreeing to terms and conditions.
Listen to the interview in full.
Attwood Marshall Lawyers featured in the Australian Financial Review discussing estate planning around a “black sheep” of the family.
Our Legal Practice Director, Jeff Garrett, spoke with AFR reporter Duncan Hughes about the use of discretionary (family) trusts in estate planning.
Jeff explained that these trusts are commonly used for asset protection, succession planning and tax purposes, allowing income to be distributed to beneficiaries on lower marginal tax rates. They can also help prevent claims from estranged relatives, often referred to as the “black sheep” of the family, who may seek a larger share of the estate.
“There are many reasons a family member might be excluded from a trust,” Jeff said. “Sometimes it could be caused because they simply do not get along with the family on some issue, such as a family business.”
Jeff, who has frequently represented excluded beneficiaries in court, noted that accessing trust information can be extremely difficult, often requiring multiple legal actions to uncover the details.
Read the full story here.
Attwood Marshall Lawyers’ Legal Practice Director Jeff Garrett was featured in the Australian Financial Review, commenting on sibling rivalry and inheritance disputes.
Millions of Australians are in line to jointly inherit the family home with their siblings. In all likelihood, the property has skyrocketed in value over the years. There may even be life-changing sums involved and disputes can easily arise.
“Historical family issues going back to when the siblings were young children often resurface,” says Jeff Garrett, the managing partner of Attwood Marshall Lawyers. “These issues can be relatively benign such as inter-sibling rivalry and jealousy, all the way to abuse and neglect.”
For parents, the key to reducing or eliminating protracted litigation is to have the correct estate planning documentation in place. This includes a valid will that appoints an executor to deal with assets and liabilities after death and gifts your estate to chosen beneficiaries in accordance with your wishes.
“Every family, and case, is unique, but you will usually find the source of why these disputes occur is buried deep in the family history or secrets.”
Read more in the Australian Financial Review article.
Saturday 21 December 2024. Written by Joanna Mather, Wealth Editor.
Legal Practice Director, Jeff Garrett, appeared live on ABC Radio’s ‘Brisbane Mornings with Steve Austin’ to discuss the Queensland Public Trustee
Jeff was invited onto ABC Radio’s ‘Brisbane Mornings with Steve Austin’ to discuss his experience with the Public Trustee in Queensland. This follows his previous contribution to ABC’s Four Corners investigation, which exposed neglect, extraordinarily high fees, conflicts of interest, and financial mismanagement within the Public Trustee.
During the interview, Jeff shared how Attwood Marshall Lawyers has supported numerous clients who suffered financial losses and emotional trauma due to the Public Trust Office’s mismanagement of their affairs.
Attwood Marshall Lawyers has acted on behalf of clients to remove the Public Trustee as their financial manager and pursue compensation or reimbursement of excessive fees charged.
Jeff highlighted that many people are unaware of how the Public Trustee charges for its services. He also discussed estate matters, where clients struggled to deal with the Public Trustee’s high fees and the complexities involved in estate administration.
He recounted shocking cases of maltreatment, including individuals being confined to nursing homes without access to friends of family, while the Public Trustee took control of their assets – selling them off to convert into cash.
Jeff told presenter Steve Austin that these were not isolated cases. He described similar instances where the Public Trustee placed individuals into care, liquidated their assets, mismanaged their financial affairs, and charged significant fees for doing so.
To listen to the interview, click below.
Legal Practice Director, Jeff Garrett was featured in the Daily Mail Australia, sharing his expertise in Wills and estate planning.
Jeff spoke to reporter, Bek Day about the phenomenon of ‘inheritance ransom,’ where adult children are choosing to maintain relationships with abusive or difficult parents they would otherwise be estranged from purely because they need the inheritance.
Jeff said,
“I’m astounded by the sense of entitlement of adult children and grandchildren with their elderly, wealthy parents.
They are stepping in well before their parents die and attempting to take control of assets, including having assets or cash transferred to them, quite often to the detriment of the parents and their siblings.
Watching them, they all become crazed, like Gollum from Lord of the Rings, trying to get his ring back.”
Jeff told Daily Mail Australia he encounters a lot of Millennial and Gen X adult children whose expectations of a large inheritance play a major role in their financial planning, and who, in some cases, try to use their relationship with their parents as a bargaining chip.
“We often get elderly clients who come in to do their estate planning, and you’ve almost got to prod it out of them because they’re so embarrassed that it’s going on.
They’ll come in with their adult children and then come back to us secretly, saying that they want to cut them out of the will, or that they’re harassing them to transfer assets.”
To read Jeff’s interview in full with Daily Mail Australia, click here.
In the lead story of the Gold Coast Bulletin, our Legal Practice Director Jeff Garrett shares his thoughts on the light rail debate.
As the director of one of Coolangatta’s longest-standing law firms, Jeff supports extending the light rail to the border, arguing it’s the answer to the suburb’s already struggling traffic gridlock.
“From a business point-of-view, it would give us fantastic exposure to have it come down here and having the trams would promote the day tourist trade from those who would travel to Coolangatta for the day,” Jeff said.
“This is the most beautiful part of the Gold Coast and, whether you look at it historically or currently, it has so many positives and it would be an utter embarrassment for the Gold Coast and Queensland if the trams stopped at Burleigh.”
Read the full article in today’s Gold Coast Bulletin here.
16 April 2025, written by reporter, Andrew Potts.
Legal Practice Director, Jeff Garrett was invited onto ABC Radio’s ‘Gold Coast Mornings with Sarah Cummings‘ to discuss businesses taking Transport for NSW to the High Court in hopes of securing compensation for the impact the construction of Sydney light rail had on their incomes.
During the interview with reporter Danielle Mahe, Jeff explained how because the government has legislated for the light rail construction, securing compensation could be quite difficult.
However, he explained that if the High Court upholds the original Supreme Court ruling and finds that a claim of nuisance is established, it could open the floodgates for compensation claims from businesses affected by infrastructure projects that run over time or are poorly managed. The implications extend beyond Sydney – businesses across the country, including those on the Gold Coast impacted by light rail construction, will be watching this case closely.
Friday 16 May with reporter, Danielle Mahe
Legal Practice Director, Jeff Garrett spoke to Sydney radio station, 2SM about the NSW government’s plans to change the workers compensation legislation.
Jeff appeared on Ron Wilson’s Breakfast Show discussing the NSW government’s implementation of a 30% whole person impairment threshold for psychiatric injury claims – effectively doubling the benchmark mental health claimants must reach.
The changes set an unreasonably high bar for injured workers, excluding the vast majority from accessing proper compensation after suffering a psychiatric injury.
Jeff argued unlike physical injuries, psychiatric impairments are more complex to quantify and very few claimants are ever assessed as meeting a 30% threshold.
He countered a fairer measure would be to encourage employers to educate their staff and themselves about how to handle psychiatric claims.
Listen to the interview below.
The NSW government’s proposed changes to psychological injury thresholds could effectively shut down almost all psychiatric injury claims.
Legal Practice Director, Jeff Garrett, joined ABC North Coast‘s Breakfast Show with Angela Catterns to discuss the implications of lifting the psychiatric injury claim threshold from 15% to 30% whole person impairment.
Jeff explained that such a significant increase would likely rule out 99% of potential claimants, effectively putting an end to psychological injury claims in the state.
Listen to the whole interview below
