Family Law

Often, when clients separate from their spouse, their ‘automatic’ next step is seeking guidance from a family law solicitor. In our initial appointments, we are sometimes asked: “Do we have to document our property settlement formally, even if we already agree?” The simple answer – no. If both of you decide not to formalise your […]

The word ‘fair’ is ambiguous and subjective. Fair has several rather different senses, and its use is dependent on its context. To provide some examples of its ambiguity, I asked the Balance office to take their family law hats off and tell me what they thought was ‘fair’: “Depends… in what context?” “Fair is equal treatment” “The determination

The College of Law recently published Pepe’s thoughts on this matter on their website. In the blog, Pepe reflects on the concept of fairness in family law. Fairness can be disproportionately informed by actions of the past and we can become stuck there. Fairness also considers how we may fare in the future, but risks

Ongoing parental conflict arises where there is a misinterpretation of agreements and orders, or where situations occur that are not covered in the agreements/orders made and both parents are unable to agree. Parents often describe feeling left to their own devices with no ongoing assistance. Historically, parties with ongoing parental conflict end up back on

If you can reach an agreement about arrangements for your children, it can take the form of a ‘Parenting Plan’. A Parenting Plan can set out your agreement about: how often the children will spend with each parent arrangements for holidays and special days (such as school holidays, Christmas and birthdays); communication and changeover arrangements;

One of the first things to be considered when deciding on future care for the children is ‘parental responsibility’. Parental responsibility is not how much time you spend with the children, but rather how major long-term decisions about the children will be made. This can either be “equal shared” or “sole”, or a combination of

Superannuation is treated as a special type of property in family law matters and because while it is an interest that you currently have, it is not available to you until you retire. After separating, you can agree to split your super interests to your former partner (or vice versa), and how this is done

There are a number of tax concessions and exemptions when it comes to transferring property from the name of one party to the other, or from joint names to one party’s sole name if the property is transferred as a result of a relationship breakdown. Two of the main ones are Stamp Duty and Capital