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.
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 ...