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”.
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.
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 ...
We’ll take a short break from our series on Family Law Fundamentals to start a new series on Frequently Asked Questions. This is one of the most common questions we get asked – and the answer is generally, yes, mediation is the first step in the process if your dispute involves children. As we discussed in our recent article on the best interests of the child, filing an application with the Court is essentially asking a judge to decide for you what is in the best interests of your child or children. There are many reasons why such an application to the court is sometimes necessary, but a far better (and cheaper) way to resolve the dispute is to engage in family dispute resolution, also known as family law mediation. There are many benefits to mediation: The process is flexible and can be tailored to the individual needs of the ...
If you’ve read our article on Equal Shared Parental Responsibility, you’ll know that it is presumed to be in the best interests of the child that both parents share responsibility for making decisions about major long-term issues concerning the child. Determining what is in the best interests of the child is relevant to both rebutting this presumption of equal shared parental responsibility, and to making decisions about where the child lives, who the child spends time with, and other matters that the Court is called upon to consider when making Parenting Orders (including Consent Orders) under Part VII, Division 5 of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) (“the Act”). s.60CC of the Act sets out a long list of matters that the court must consider in order to determine what is in the child’s best interests. This list is broken down into Primary Considerations and Additional Considerations. Primary considerations are given ...
Welcome to our series of articles on Family Law Fundamentals. We’re going to start by looking at the stated objectives of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) (“the Act”), and the provisions of the legislation which put those objectives into operation in a practical sense. The place to start is s.60CA of the Act, which requires that the court must regard the best interests of the child as the paramount consideration. But just was is in a child’s best interests? How does the court decide? What factors are considered? OBJECTIVES OF THE ACT The objects and principles of the Act are outlined in s.60B. To summarise, s.60B(1) states that object of this Part of the Act (Part VII – Children) is to ensure that the child’s best interests are met by: Ensuring that children have the benefit of both parents having a meaningful involvement in their lives; Protecting children from physical ...