The Australian Law Reform Commission have released a discussion paper as part of their review of the Family Law System. The full text of the discussion paper can be found here: https://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/review-family-law-system-discussion-paper. It’s only a mere 357 pages! Given it’s length, we haven’t had an opportunity to review it fully yet, but there appears to be some promising potential developments. For example, a proposed triage process if a matter reaches court and direction to alternative dispute resolution or specialist court lists (in contrast to the government’s restructure bills currently before the parliament, which would reduce the specialisation of judges rather than increase it). They’re also proposing a national education and awareness campaign, which would hopefully help people better understand the options available to them and where they can go for assistance. Other proposals include: The creation of ‘Families Hubs’ to consolidate access to legal and support services; The creation of ...
Interesting Article On Binding Financial Agreements. Molloy, S., “Divorce lawyer’s prenup includes everything, including her Tupperware”, news.com.au, 12 September 2018. Story tonight on Insight, SBS at 8:30pm.
We haven’t had a parrot yet, but occasionally the family dog will feature.
Taylor, K., ‘Price of justice too high for our poor’, Sunshine Coast Daily, 14 April 2018.
In today’s Family Law Fundamentals we’re going to take a look at parenting orders as defined in Part VII, Division 5 of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) (“the Act”). Part VII of the Act deals with children’s matters in general, and s.64B (in Division 5 of Part VII), defines what a parenting order is. A parenting order may deal with one or more of the following:
Welcome to Frequently Asked Family Law Questions. Today we’re going to take a look at how to organise a mediation. Mediation is a mechanism where the parties to a dispute voluntarily ask an independent third-party to facilitate a discussion aimed at exploring the issues in conflict and attempting to negotiate an agreement that all parties consent to be bound by.
Well, would you look at that – in the midst of all the chaos in parliament yesterday the coalition somehow managed to introduce the Family Court restructure bills. We haven’t had a chance to take a look yet, but we will no doubt have some opinions once we do. In the meantime, here is the link to the bill and explanatory memoranda. Given how completely the government has destroyed itself, there might not be much point in getting worked up about the contents…
Earlier this week we posted an article which posed the question who is worse off after divorce, men or women? We deferred discussion on that point to our new series in which we explore some of the more controversial aspects of family law. Each Friday we aim to consider some of the more difficult questions that arise in the field and perhaps even generate some polite debate. We’re calling the new series “Myth or Fact”.
It’s almost the end of the week so let’s have a little family law fun. Each Thursday we’ll try and lighten the mood with what we’re calling “Thursday Funday“. With props to Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr and Dan Piraro.
A recent article on the ABC asks the question who is worse off after a divorce, men or women? The article considers a recent report by The Australian Institute of Family Studies.