An article released today, titled, “Family Law Courts are Crippling Families” essays some important statistics about the pressures experienced by the Family / Federal Circuit Court and Australian families. Respectfully, however, the title misdescribes (perhaps inadvertently) that the problem is caused by the Courts themselves.
Here is what you should know if you are planning to dispute parenting or argue about property in this country. Use mediation.
Mediation services developed to deal with complex child custody disputes could be used to resolve cases of elder abuse if legal aid commissions are properly funded, the peak body for legal aid in Australia has said.
The mediation model was developed for use in family law cases and has an 80% success rate, the National Legal Aid chairman, Graham Hill, said.
The dress is made and the relatives have flown in: can a woman be expected to fairly consider a pre-nup presented days before her wedding to her much older millionaire fiancé? Lessons from the High Court for parties exerting undue influence when negotiating financial agreements.
The Family Court and Federal Circuit Court of Australia are struggling to keep up with the large number of new matters being filed (over 100,000 in 2015/16 alone). In many cases, families are not receiving a final hearing (in some cases even an urgent interim hearing) for 2 to 3 years. Decisions then not being handed down for months, if not years thereafter.
The need for parties to consider mediation has never been more vital.
Recently the Family Court of Australia’s Chief Justice, Diana Bryant said, “Australia’s Family Court is letting families down because of huge backlogs and lack of resources and that there are very vulnerable people caught up in the system and at the moment we are powerless to do a lot about it,” (more…)
Do you have a parenting or property dispute and have lost your legal aid?
Contact Affirmative Mediations now and find out how we can help you resolve your dispute quickly and for a small fraction of the cost of going to Court.
The Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia says cuts to legal aid have compromised her court.
THE Australian Taxation Office is stepping up its push to avoid costly court actions with big businesses and wealthy people.
Parties in dispute in parenting matters often forget that if they are unable to find a solution to the dispute they have about a parenting matter, a Judge will ultimately make the decision(s) for them. Often, both parties end up with an outcome that they didn’t want or sometimes expect to be ordered.
Recently in Anderson & McIntosh [2013] FamCAFC the Full Court of the Family Court of Australia was asked to consider whether an Argentinian Divorce Order was a “divorce order” within the meaning of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth). The unanimous decision of the Court was that it was not. (more…)
If you have a family law dispute that you are contemplating filing (or have recently filed) then you should take note of when the Family Court of Australia and Federal Circuit Court are sitting over the Christmas / New Year period (other than for emergent circumstances). (more…)
