While it’s true that most family law matters resolve at some point before a trial, there is still a chance that during the separation process you will have to attend Court (whether remotely or in-person).
Attending Court, especially to give evidence, can be a nerve-wracking experience.
The processes, formalities, environment and conduct of a Court hearing can be a bit foreign to many people. This leads to increased stress and sometimes to avoidable mistakes being made.
So, if you have to
As we’ve mentioned before, spouses’ superannuation funds are considered part of the property pool during separation.
This means that your superannuation is considered an asset that is available to be divided in some proportion between you and your ex as part of the separation process.
But how does this work? Isn’t superannuation protected until retirement age? How does the Court decide what to do with superannuation if the parties can’t agree?
Mediation is an inherent part of most family separation proceedings.
But what is mediation when it comes to family law, and how does it work?
Mediation is a process where parties to a dispute try to reach an agreement.
It is facilitated by a mediator.
It is not a place where someone declares one party to be right or wrong, nor where someone will feel entirely satisfied with the outcome as if they have “won”.
Instead, it is where everyone is encouraged to find a middle
In Australia, infidelity is one of the top four most common reasons for divorce. Unfortunately, when a marriage ends due to adultery, the resulting legal battle is frequently combative and emotionally turbulent.
If you were the one cheated on, you're likely wondering if your spouse's behaviour will benefit you legally, financially, or in some other way. Likewise, if you were the unfaithful spouse, you might be concerned that you're at a disadvantage in the eyes of the law.
Here's a closer
One of the more mundane but critical components of the separation process within the Court system is each participant’s duty of disclosure.
That is, the requirement that you hand over to your ex (and their lawyer) copies of all relevant documents.
Many people find this to be a time consuming, intrusive, and objectionable process. But putting it off, or doing it half-heartedly, only tends to result in delays or problems that can impact your ability to finalise your separation sooner rather
The family pet – cat, dog, bird, fish or any of the other variants – can create a large amount of tension in the separation process.
So how does the Court deal with who gets “custody” of family pets in separation?
In this article, we’ll set out the general principles to be applied if the Court is asked to decide on the future of the family pet.
While we might talk about “custody” of family pets, they are not treated the same as children.
A pet, in truth, is treated as a
Many couples have joint bank accounts. That might be for day to day transactions, joint savings, credit cards or any number of others.
However, during the separation process, maintaining a joint bank account can become challenging on any number of levels.
It is particularly difficult if one partner has an income that the other partner has relied upon, or joint debt that requires ongoing payments.
In this article we’ll run through some of the principles around joint bank accounts during
The separation process is the target of much negative commentary. Many both inside and outside the legal system consider it to be overly long, expensive and difficult for separating couples to navigate.
One particularly challenging area is where one party desires fast and amicable finalisation of the relationship, and the other seems to want a fight at every opportunity.
So while there’s no sure-fire method, what are some strategies you can implement to try and keep things on the path to a
The complexities of the separation process come with many decisions. One early hurdle is deciding who, if anyone, should stay in the house if you’re separating or separated?
There’s no one size fits all solution here, but there are certainly some factors you’ll want to take into account.
Moving out of the family home, especially if you have been there a long time, is a large job and not necessarily one you can always tackle at the same time as everything else
When it comes to Family Law matters we deal with the breakdown of two types of relationships, marriages and de facto relationships.
A marriage is usually pretty straight forward to prove, and we’ve written previously on our blog about proving a de facto relationship exists.
In this article we are going to expand your knowledge a little bit further and talk about registration of domestic relationships in Victoria and consider whether registering your relationship is something you should
What is a “de facto” relationship in Australia?
Lots of people have heard of de facto relationships, often as some kind of non-formal alternative to marriage. But what is a de facto relationship, why does it matter, and how do you figure out if you’re in one?
With the formality of marriage comes some fairly automatic protections, rights and responsibilities in the event of a relationship breakdown.
But the law recognises some
Let’s say you’re in the middle of the separation process (you’ve separated and now you need to work out how you will divide your assets and parenting arrangements). You’re probably wondering how to start negotiating things and what your options are for actually bringing things to a close.
In this article, we’ll run through the 6 most common avenues that separating parties pursue to work through the finer details of their separation to reach agreement.
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