New seminar series starts in 1 week!

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from Accredited Family Law Specialist, Michael Lynch. 2 seminars are being held on“Separation and Property”.

In ‘plain-english’ Michael will explain the complexities of this area, identifying the common traps and (more importantly) the tips to overcome them. Anyone recently separated needs to know this!

What you will learn:

Property:

• How a property settlement is determined and dispelling many of the common myths.
• What is property? – You will be surprised.
• Know your values – it is usually not what it seems.
• And much more…

The seminars are open to everyone and the attendance fee is ONLY $40 (payable at the door).

Sunnybank: 6-7pm – Wednesday, 10 June, Sunnybank Community & Sports Club – 470 McCullough St, Sunnybank
Brisbane City: 1–2.00 pm – Tuesday, 16 June, Berkley’s on Ann, 255 Ann St, Brisbane

Seating is limited so register now by calling (07) 3221 4300 or email [email protected]. 

FREE – Resources!

We recently became aware of a Brisbane legal firm selling Family law explanatory books online for over $100! We don’t!

Our resources are extensive and FREE, and always have been.

Our ‘Guide to Family Law – everyday answers’ book is up-to-date and over the last 20 years we have printed and distributed over 120,000 copies! – all for FREE!

Popular topics

Every couple of months we provide an “in-depth” and practical article in our “Close-up” series. These articles are FREE and in addition to the fortnightly Flyer newsletter. Here are links to some of the most popular ones:

• “Stop it! Family Law and Social Media”
• “Beware what you declare is true“
• “Alert – New Domestic Violence Laws – QLD!”
• “Staying in the home“
• “What is a Defacto Relationship?” and
• “Withholding a Child”

New child support app

The Department of Human Services has a new app called Express Plus Child Support. It allows parents to make and keep track of their child support payments, update their details and tell the department about important changes in their circumstances. If parents are registered for myGov, they can download the app to pay child support and check their support payments.

Family court filing statistics

The Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) has released figures on Family Court filing for the period 2005 to 2013.

One of the goals of the 2006 amendments to the Family Law Act was to help decrease the amount of litigation in the Family Court and instead encourage disputes being resolved through mediation. The report sheds light on whether the amendments have achieved this goal.

The report also shows the impact of the 2009 amendments which brought defacto couple property cases under the Family Law Act.

The key findings of the report are:

• Court filings in children’s matters in 2013 reflected a 25% decrease on 2005, the period prior to the 2006 family law ‘shared parenting’ reforms.
• In relation to court applications in property matters, there was a 17% increase nationally that reflected the impact of the 2009 defacto property reforms.
• Family law cases are divided 14% to the Family Court and 86% to the Federal Circuit Court.

Challenges of extra-curricular activities

Life with kids can get pretty busy. So what does the court do when one parent does not want the extra-curricular activities?

• The parents had agreed to orders that provided for the children (aged 13 and 10) to ‘live with’ the mother and ‘spend time with’ the father each alternate weekend.

• The children were attending extra-curricular activities on a Friday evening and Sunday each weekend. The father had concerns about the mother enrolling the children in extra-curricular activities as this would impact on his weekend time with the children.
• The court noted it was not a hardship for the non-resident parent to take the children to sporting and social activities and a non-resident parent cannot realistically expect the children’s time with them to be ‘activity-free’.
• The court however did make an Order preventing the mother fromarranging any further extra-curricular activities for the children in the father’s time without first obtaining his consent.

High numbers of child abductions in Australia

Child Recovery Australia (CRA) recently reported that Australia has the highest rates of international child abduction in the world, between 250 and 300 children are kidnapped by a parent every year and only 50% are ever recovered.

CRA states that both mothers and fathers abduct children however since the change to Australia’s shared parenting laws in 2006, mothers have been responsible for more abductions than fathers, with 84%.

The ‘Kid Spot’ organisation states that “abductions in Egypt, North Africa and the Middle East are predominantly committed by fathers however worldwide, mothers are the majority abducting parent”. Children taken are usually between 2 and 7 years old with fathers usually taking children during a custody battle and mothers once parenting orders have been handed down