Family Law

Divorce is the formal legal recognition by the Family Court that your marriage has ended. A divorce order essentially “breaks” the marriage contract.

Our Divorce Lawyers in Perth can assist you in making or responding to applications for divorce and ensure that all necessary steps in relation to the divorce are taken in the correct order. Most of our clients complete their divorce application online, and we can provide as much assistance or advice as you require.

You only have one chance to complete your property settlement, so ensuring you get the right advice is crucial.

We will advise you on your legal entitlements and discuss the range of resolution options available to you, including negotiation, mediation, arbitration, or, if necessary, litigation.

Once an agreement is achieved, we can advise you on best way to formalise that agreement and ensure your rights are protected.

Negotiating parenting arrangements after separation can be an emotional and stressful experience, and can raise a number of (often complex) questions, such as:

• Where will the children live?;
• How will the children divide their time between parents (and possibly extended family such as grandparents)?;
• Who is going to pay for the school fees and extra-curricular activities?;
• If the children live with one parent most of the time, when will they spend time or communicate with the other parent and other close family members?;
• Whether the parents will make decisions affecting their children together or individually?
• Who will children spend special days with, including birthdays, Father’s and Mother’s Day, Christmas and Easter?;
• How will decisions be made in relation to issues such as schooling, health and medical, religious and cultural matters; and
• Where the child will live if one of the parents wants to move a significant distance from where they currently live (relocation)?;

In our experience, reaching an agreement outside of Court helps to preserve the parenting relationship that separated parties continue to share in the years after their matter has ended. This in turn has significant immediate and long-term benefits for their children. We acknowledge and understand the emotions that come with separation and we assist our clients to maintain a child-focused approach to their case, to ensure they achieve the best possible outcome for their children.

In cases involving urgency, child-welfare concerns or family violence, mediation or negotiation may not be appropriate. If litigation is necessary, we will guide you through the Family Court process. In most cases, an agreement is reached at some stage in that process, without the need for a contested trial.

The financial support of children can create difficulties for many people after the breakdown of their relationship. In most cases, child support will be determined by the Department of Human Services (formally the Child Support Agency) once a parent makes an application for a child support assessment.

Parents also have the ability to enter into a formal or informal private agreement about how child support payments will be made. These agreements offer a high degree of flexibility and can cover costs that may be outside the scope of usual child support assessment, including fixed or ongoing expenses such as school fees, health insurance or extra-curricular activities.

They also enable parents to agree a periodic child support amount that is different to their child support assessment.

Because they are private, it is usually essential for both parties to obtain independent legal advice about the agreements, before they sign. We have extensive experience in preparing and advising on private child support agreements.

A Binding Financial Agreement (sometimes referred to as a BFA or ‘pre-nuptial agreement’), can be made by de facto and married couples at any time before, during or after separation.

Financial Agreements are becoming an increasingly popular method of asset protection and estate planning. They are the best (and only) means of defining how joint and separate property will be divided between parties during the relationship, or before a separation occurs.

They are commonly used by couples entering into a second marriage, those who have an interest in a business, or with children from an earlier relationship, to protect their personal property and their children’s inheritance.

The effect of entering into a Financial Agreement is generally to prevent either party from later making an application for property settlement in the Family Court. Because Financial Agreements are not reviewed by the Family Court, both parties must obtain independent legal advice about the effect of the Agreement on their rights, and the advantages and disadvantages, at the time the Agreement is made, of entering into it.

The consequences of signing a Financial Agreement are significant. Proper preparation of the Agreement and comprehensive legal advice are essential to protect the agreement against any future challenge.

Our Family Law Team has significant experience in the preparation of Financial Agreements (both simple and complex) and the provision of advice in relation to Agreements prepared by other solicitors.

Spousal maintenance is (usually) a periodic payment to a former partner who is unable to adequately support themselves after separation, where the other spouse has the capacity to pay. Spousal maintenance is a payment separate to child support. Often, spousal maintenance is paid until such time as a final agreement as to property settlement can be reached.

In some cases, it is appropriate for maintenance to be paid for a defined period after settlement, or for a lump sum payment to be made as part of an overall property settlement. Maintenance orders will only be made if the other party has the capacity to make payments.

We can advise you about your claim for spousal maintenance or advise you in response to a claim that has been made against you.

If you have Court Orders and the other party is not following them, we can advise you about making an Enforcement or Contravention Application in the Family Court. The Court can enforce an order, make a person comply with the order, or vary an order to make sure it can be complied with it in the future. In extreme cases, the Court can impose serious penalties for non-compliance.

Family Mediation is an important tool to use following a separation. Our Perth Family Mediation service have extensive networks with a broad range of different mediators, all of whom have different strengths and approaches. This means we can tailor our family mediation process to meet your particular needs.

In most parenting disputes, parents must attend Family Dispute Resolution before making an application to the Family Court of Western Australia. Parents can utilise government funded Dispute Resolution services at Relationships Australia or Anglicare, or can elect to engage a mediator privately. When both parties participate in the process, mediation can be a highly effective way of resolving a dispute entirely, or at the very least, narrowing the issues in dispute, before Court action is taken.

If both parties are legally represented in a property settlement matter, in most instances they will be strongly encouraged to attend our Mediation-Style Conference, either before starting proceedings in the Family Court, or after the first hearing of the Application.

A Mediation-Style Conference is a half or full-day mediation attended by the parties, their lawyers and a qualified Mediation Chairperson. All participants should prepare for the mediation to maximise the prospects of a successful outcome.

Mediation-Style Conferences can be a highly effective means of reaching a settlement (in relation to property settlement and / or parenting) outside of Court.

Surrogacy is an arrangement where a woman (the surrogate) carries child that is not her biological child, for the intended parents of the child. Once the child is born, an application is made to the Family Court to obtain a declaration that the intended parents are the legal parents of the child. In Australia, surrogacy must be altruistic, and not for financial gain.

To create a legally recognised surrogacy, before the pregnancy, the intended parents and their surrogate must enter into a Surrogacy Agreement. We can assist with preparation of that Agreement and / or provision of the requisite legal advice.

Following the birth of a child, we can assist intended parents with the application to the Family Court for the declaration as to parentage.

Adoption is the legal process by which a child ceases to be the legal child of his or her birth parents and becomes instead the child of the adoptive parents, as if born to them.

We can help you with the process of adoption, which is relatively straightforward.

The State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) can appoint a guardian in respect of an adult who is:

• incapable of looking after his or her own health and safety;
  unable to make reasonable judgements in respect of matters relating to his or her own person; and
  in need of oversight, care or control in the interests of his or her health and safety or for the protection of others.
• the SAT can also appoint an administrator to make financial and legal decisions in the best interests someone not capable of making those decisions for themselves.

There is no requirement that the person’s incapacity has resulted from any disability, although in many cases, we assist clients to make these applications on behalf of their disabled adult children, or on behalf of their elderly parents who may have suffered a stroke or may have developed dementia. While not strictly coming within the realm of “family law” we commonly assist our family law clients to make these applications, with input as required from members or our other practice teams.