Family Law Services

Divorce in Australia is no-fault: the court does not consider who was to blame, only that the marriage has broken down irretrievably. In practice that means you must be separated for twelve months and one day before you can apply.

The divorce order itself is usually the simplest part. What matters far more is the timing around it — because your divorce starts a twelve-month clock for bringing a property or spousal maintenance claim. Getting that sequence wrong is one of the few genuinely unfixable mistakes in family law, which is why we would rather you called early than tidily.

• Sole and joint applications for divorce
• Separation under one roof, including the evidence the court expects
• Short marriages, and applications where children are under 18
• Service on a spouse who cannot be located or will not respond
• Protecting your property and maintenance deadlines

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There is no fifty-fifty rule. The court works through a sequence: what is in the asset pool, what each of you contributed to it, what each of you will need going forward, and whether the result is just and equitable overall.

Most of the real work happens at the first step. Superannuation, a business interest, an inheritance received mid-relationship, a property in a parent’s name, cryptocurrency, debt that only one of you knew about — all of it has to be found, valued and characterised before anyone can sensibly argue about percentages. A settlement built on an incomplete picture is not a settlement.

• Full disclosure, valuations and asset tracing
• Superannuation splitting orders
• Businesses, trusts, company structures and self-managed funds
• Inheritances, gifts and pre-relationship contributions
• Spousal maintenance, both interim and ongoing
• Binding financial agreements, before or after separation

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The law no longer talks about custody or access. It talks about parental responsibility — who makes the long-term decisions — and about the time a child spends with each parent. Both questions are answered the same way: by what is in the best interests of the child, with their safety weighed above everything else.

That framing matters, because it changes what is worth arguing about. A parenting case is not won by proving your former partner was a poor spouse. It is won by showing a workable, stable arrangement that serves the children.

• Parenting plans and negotiated live-with and spend-time arrangements
• Parental responsibility, schooling, health and religious upbringing
• Relocation — interstate and overseas — and recovery orders
• Urgent applications where a child’s safety is at risk
• Grandparents and other significant carers
• Contravention proceedings where orders are not being followed

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A property settlement is the formal division of everything you own and owe. It can be reached by agreement or ordered by a court, but until it is documented properly it is not final — and an informal agreement at the kitchen table gives you no protection at all if circumstances change.

The family home is usually the centre of it: whether one of you can refinance and keep it, whether it has to be sold, and who lives there in the meantime. Alongside that sits superannuation, frequently the second-largest asset and the one most often overlooked.

• Married and de facto property settlements
• Retaining, refinancing or selling the family home
• Exclusive occupation and interim property orders
• Stamp duty exemptions on transfers between former partners
• Injunctions where assets are being moved or dissipated
• Enforcement where a settlement is not being honoured

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If you and your former partner have already reached an agreement, consent orders are how you make it real. You file the agreed terms with the court, a registrar checks that they are just and equitable — or, for children, in their best interests — and they are sealed as orders. Nobody has to attend court.

This is the cheapest and fastest good outcome available in family law. It also closes the door properly: without orders, your former partner can come back years later and make a claim on assets you have since built up.

• Financial and property consent orders
• Parenting consent orders
• Application for Consent Orders and supporting material, prepared in full
• Superannuation splitting, including procedural fairness to the fund
• Reviewing terms drafted by the other side before you sign anything
• Varying or setting aside existing orders when circumstances change

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For parenting matters, family dispute resolution is not optional — you generally need a section 60I certificate before a court will hear you, unless there is urgency, family violence or a risk to a child. For financial matters, mediation is simply the sensible thing to try first.

Mediation only works when someone has done the preparation. Turning up without disclosure, without valuations and without a clear sense of your range is how a day gets wasted. We prepare you the same way we would prepare for a hearing, attend with you, and document whatever is agreed on the day.

• Family dispute resolution and section 60I certificates
• Preparation, position papers and realistic range advice
• Attendance at mediation and settlement conferences
• Round-table negotiation and solicitor-led correspondence
• Arbitration for suitable financial matters
• Same-day drafting of heads of agreement and terms of settlement

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