Family Law Court

Kid can apply for citizenship by descent.

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Wat?

answer to the constituents every 4 years, lose your spine the rest of the time. Please tell me how Labor maintained its backbone.

edit: actually donā€™t

Donā€™t disagree at present Barnz.

Anyway Court is over and no-one wins. I am sitting at the Wollongong Golf Club and I am going to get really drunk. Family Law Court is worse than 21 consecutive goals by the Doggies

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You can take solace in the fact that Family Court decisions donā€™t mean ā– ā– ā– ā– .

Except Wim for the dividing of the assets. All the monies are in a Lawyers Trust Account so they will be split as the Court decreed. Agree though that this bloke will not live up his part of the Parenting Agreement and the Court will not enforce anything it seems.

Well gosh.

worried about giving blokes a bad name when hasnā€™t he admitted to cheating on his mrs one time?

Havenā€™t been paying too much attention to politics generally lately to be honest but didnā€™t the government recently win support for a Royal Commission or other significant inquiry into the Family Court with the assistance of Senator Hansen?

There was a major review, with the Australian Law Reform Commission proposing more cohesive norms with other courts in regard to family issues, including related State arrangements on domestic violence and child protection. The Government went down on merging the Family Court with the Dustrict Federal Court ( of lesser status) but is putting it up again. There are issues connected to funding family law issues and other family related assistance.

The problem with the family court is simply the time and its cost.

You donā€™t have justice if the wait is 2 years and it costs both parties 6 figures to contest.

That is the big problem.

I am no lawyer but I think we need different family courts. One that deals with children. One that deals with property and one that deals with criminal matters. (ie domestic violence). NOT one big queue.

And I would look at cost caps on property settlements, at least make them relevant to the amount being contested.

The delays and costs were certainly identified as needing reform. You might want to check out the ALRC report/ recommendations.
To note that domestic violence and child protection come under State jurisdiction. Sometimes Family Court and the State proceedings are pretty much running together and they are of course connected to child custody/access hearings in the Family Court - and legal costs for them can be horrendous , particularly when federal funding for legal aid has been reduced.

Family courts been there done that and won full custody of my daughter At age of 2 of whom is now 19 and when she turned 18 they scrubbed her motherā€™s child support debt.
My other offspring who I have 50/50 care and I have to pay his mother weekly :pray:t3:Happy days.

One thing I wish though when I went through it years ago was the lack of support for Dads as itā€™s a terrible time in life.

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To be honest, I found today very confusing and very different to my experience in the Family Court decades ago.

Seems @handypoint that property and children are done separately, and you do not have Custody any longer it is called Parental Responsibility and in most cases unless there is an AVO or domestic violence both partners get shared responsibility. Not sure how this works, if one Partner just lives to screw the other over, but that is the gist of it.

And in property settlement, a new twist is that if the one Partner who earns lots less than the other then they get more of the division of assets. Apparently as the Registrar explained to me, it means that a Woman who has not worked will not be disadvantaged in the property settlement, as she has far less future earning capacity. In my Sisters case, she is a University Professor and earns a nice sum, while the Bloke who is a trained Social Worker, only works when he wanted and earns less. Made no sense to me, but the Lawyers all nodded agreement.

Anyway the bombshell today was that the ex-Partner has announced to his 13 year old boy that he is relocating back to Australia as of now and wants to have access to see him, and is bringing his new bride and baby from Laos. Everyone believes him, so settlement of assets was set at 50% each, even though there was no documents presented to prove his assertions. I suppose it is good that his son will have a Dad, but I hope he is being honest.

And me whinging that he was claiming his living costs over the past 16 months, as debts owing to his family through loans was also given the Ok, as it was explained that assets also includes any liabilities at the time of the settlement. Also very strange to me.

All Parties have agreed to this settlement and at least it means my Sisters can move on from all the emotional distress and get the share from the house sale and buy a new place for her and the boy.

Family law needs a make-over; not sure how and what, but maybe a lie-detector session would be good.

Not a royal commission. Yes a parliamentary inquiry, allegedly to be chaired by Kevin Andrews and Pauline Hanson.

Also bigallan is correct there was a ALRC review just completed with a wide terms of reference. However, they squibbed it a bit and sent lots of claims they received from public back to Govt saying we donā€™t know what to do with these because the claims havenā€™t been tested in court and other party has not had opportunity to respond.

Hence Govt has started another Inquiry so they can say they gave the general public a better opportunity (since ALRC pretty much ignored them).

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Having been involved with female and male friends going through the system, it struck me the extensive and structured volunteer support services that the women readily access ( although they sometimes give bad advice and can give rise to unrealistic expectations). A male friend presently going through the system seems to only have me and his mum to draw on, apart from his solicitor. Managing his anger and expectations is not easy.

People make all sorts of claims to try and justify their position in an argiment. Doesnt mean it holds any weight in the legal argument. Your lawyer argues those.

What really matters in family law disputes is length of relationship. (the longer the more likely a straight 50/50 split).
With the exception being large recent gifts given to one party (eg an inheritance).

I am hazarding at a guess (and deep apologies if this is unhelpful) that adjustments to a 50 50 split wouldnt have been made in your sisters case as both parties have a child to care for. That and your sister is caring for a juvenile on the cusp of adulthood and her ex has a baby.

Your sister has a great career with a handsome wage and gets to spend time with her son.

My personal advice is for her to move on and enjoy life.

Edit I am no lawyer. But this is my experience ā€¦

And the registrar bought all that. I think sometimes they just want to get it out of the way and not have to deal with it again. On the face of it, as he has been living in Laos for so long, most people would assume heā€™s saying whatever he needs to say in order to get his preferred settlement, before heading back to Laos and spending it all. Did he at least appear in person?

The best advice from my experience is to remain calm and show no aggression as this can turn the tide against the father quite quickly and most men will spiral as a consequence.

Think we are getting there with that message - also that the Court will decide on the basis of the best interests of the children- itā€™s not about judging whether the father or mother should win.
And, that judges would not take kindly to the kids being used as revenge tools by either of them.
Seems there was quite a good Court ordered mediation session that made them approach matters more realistically.
But as the old saying goes, when love flies out the window, the solicitor comes in through the door.