How To Put Orders In Place Now To Avoid Problems Later On

If you Don’t put Orders in place now you’ll regret it!

With just about every facet regarding Family Law issues it is highly recommended you get binding Orders from the Family Court of Australia or the Federal Circuit Court of Australia as soon as you can.  Here’s why.(Avoid Problems)

Children’s Orders

Even if there is no problem communicating with and agreeing on care arrangements for your children after a relationship breakdown it is almost certain that there will be some disagreement about specific issues in the future.  If you do not have legally binding Orders in place at that stage life can become a nightmare and your children will be caught in the middle.

Issues such as where the children will go to primary or high school and medical treatments are common areas of disagreement.  With Orders in place these issues can be dealt with ahead of time with a little forethought and even if specific Orders regarding unforeseen circumstances may not be included in the Orders dispute resolution clauses are common to help parent’s come to agreement without the need for expensive legal representation (or, god forbid, even needing to go to Court to have a judge decide).

Another thing you will need to remember is that the longer you leave an arrangement in place regarding care of a child (especially if is not what you want now or in the future) then the harder it will be to change.  Court’s don’t like changing structure and consistent arrangements for children once an established pattern is in place.  It can take months and years to get a Court to sort it out and it may take further months and years for changes to be made slowly to a child’s routine so as not to have adverse effects on their lives.

Property Orders

Most people don’t know that you do not need to be divorced to settle property matters after a relationship or marriage breakdown.

You can settle property issues straight away and in most cases this is recommended.

At separation you will have a better understanding of financial and non-financial contributions to the relationship by each party.  With the passage of time this can be harder to establish and can lead to disagreement.

The major factor that most people aren’t aware of is that what you do with your money after separation can affect your entitlement to property of the relationship.  The property pool that is divided under Australian Family Law is that at the time of division and not that at separation.  The longer you leave it the more the property pool will change and the harder it will be to determine who is entitled to what.

Whilst the majority of what is added or taken away from the property pool is deemed to be the post separation contribution of that person, it may only change the percentage of entitlement to property of the pool and not specifically return the value of the amount contributed.  Time muddies the waters.  We had a recent matter that commenced after about ten years of separation.  It took three years and a trial to work out who was entitled to what property as the post separation contributions were massive.  The cost to get the decision of the Court was hundreds of thousands for each party.

Experience Matters

If you want to keep your hard earned money to yourself.  Get Court Orders now.  We can help and can discuss how with a free 20 minute conference with one of our highly experienced Family Lawyers by phone, in person or via online video conference.  We also offer a consultation of up to two hours for $440.  Contact us today.

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