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.
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.
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”.
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.
Continuing our series on Family Law Fundamentals, this week we take a look at disclosure. What is it and why do you have to do it? Simply put, disclosure is the process by which each party ‘discloses’ what their assets and liabilities are and provides evidence to show how much they are worth. This allows the parties to calculate the ‘net matrimonial pool of assets and liabilities’, or the net value of the assets available to be distributed between the parties.
Following on from Friday’s post about compulsory mediation for family law matters involving children, some might be wondering if there is a similar requirement to attend mediation for financial matters (also known as family law property settlement matters). There is no corresponding compulsion in the Family Law Act 1975 to attend family dispute resolution for financial matters, however, as a matter of practice, mediations in one form or another do tend to occur as a matter of course. The parties may opt for mediation as the first step in the dispute resolution process. Given the many benefits of mediation, this is a sensible approach to dispute resolution. Mediation tends to be cheaper, faster and permit a more satisfying resolution where the parties decide the terms of the agreement, rather than have terms imposed upon them. If proceedings have been commenced, when the matter comes before a judge the Court will ...
The truth is always the best evidence. Sitting in the back of the court today and I was reminded of one of my first cases and the lesson is as timely as ever. All those years ago I was instructing a barrister (who is now a Federal Circuit Court judge) and our witness was on the stand. The witness was asked a seemingly innocuous question – ‘how tall was he?’ The witness replied, “five foot eight and three quarters”. I was just a junior solicitor, but I knew in that instant that we were stuffed. Well, if not that exact instant, certainly in the one where the witness was asked if she stood by that statement and she confirmed that she was indeed certain that the man was, ‘definitely five foot eight and three quarters’. The witness had no way of knowing the exact height of the person in question ...
A great deal of time, skill and effort went in to designing the Breen Smith Family Law logo – and just as you’d expect from a family run and family focused law firm – it was a family affair. Shannon had the idea but not the skill to bring it to fruition. She turned to her good friend (and sister-in-law), talented artist and children’s book author and illustrator, Heidi Cooper Smith, who turned Shannon’s vision into reality. The idea was of a tree whose two sides grew side by side from the outset. At some point, these two halves stopped growing in the same direction and began to grow apart. As the sides diverge, they turn their backs on each other until at one point, one side turns back and tries to reach out, but is shunned. Eventually, both sides realise that despite the fact they have grown apart and ...