Barbara Morris, Family Lawyer
Don’t spend time crashing around on the internet and wondering whether what you have read about family law is right or wrong for you. Come in to see us for a free first interview at no obligation to you and let us tell you what the right answers are for your circumstances.
Family Law Free First Interview
There will be no salesman-type hard selling of our services. You will not be asked to make a commitment to us at this free interview. The interview is designed to allow you to understand how family law applies in your particular circumstances and what your options are for dealing with the issues you are currently facing.
At our first free interview wewill listen to your problem, provide you our preliminary view on what your legal options are, and give you a cost estimate for the different options. You can then decide what action, if any, you would like to take from there.
Separation is a stressful event for everyone. It’s important that you have someone protecting your interests with whom you feel comfortable and feel you can trust.
Yes, we will definitely fight for your rights and strongly represent your interests to get the best result for you in your circumstances. At the same time, we will focus on getting you the best possible result for an affordable cost whilst bearing in mind that going to court is a highly stressful and costly exercise. If we can save you that stress and cost, we will.
The steps after separation
As a first option, we usually recommend not rushing into court proceedings and that you try mediation, whether it be for a children’s case or a de facto or marriage property settlement case.
In child custody or parenting dispute cases, it is compulsory to first attempt mediation with your ex-partner before taking Court action. There are some exceptions to this requirement, which can be explained to you at a first free interview.
We can recommend Family Dispute Resolution Practitioners who can take your matter at short notice so that you won’t have to wait 6 weeks or more, as can be the case with some mediation services.
If mediation is successful and you reach an agreement, then the cost of your separation will be far less than if you were to take Court proceedings.
We can put you in touch with mediators who will secure the best chance for you to settle the matter without the need to go to court. Not only will this reduce the financial cost to you, but also the emotional cost and damage to your relationship with your ex-partner. This is particularly important if you are co-parenting a child (or children) together.
If you reach an agreement at mediation with your ex-partner we can then provide advice on whether the agreement reached is fair and along the lines of what a Court would likely order in your situation. After this advice is provided, we would recommend the agreement be made into consent orders in the Family Court to provide you with protection of your legal rights.
Consent orders
If you have reached a property settlement agreement between yourselves and just need the necessary documents prepared for filing with the Court to have your agreed settlement terms made final and legally binding by way of Court Orders, we can prepare those documents for you at a cost of around $2,100 – $2,300 inc GST, plus a Family Court filing fee which is currently $200. This fee usually increases slightly on 1 July each year. You can find the current Court fee to file an application for Consent Orders here:
If we advise you and negotiate on your behalf with your ex-partner for children’s orders or a property settlement with the agreed outcome made into consent orders, then the estimated legal cost will be between $3,400 – $4,050 inc GST, plus the Family Court filing fee for an application for Consent Orders.
In some cases there can be additional costs for example, where an actuarial report is required (this can arise when the parties are splitting a defined benefit interest superannuation fund).
Negotiations by lawyers
We understand mediation with your ex-partner may not be the most appropriate approach for you in your circumstances, or maybe you’ve tried mediation previously and it wasn’t successful.
If that is your situation, then I believe in first assisting you to negotiate with your ex-partner either directly, or through their lawyer. This will help us understand what the issues of contention may be in your particular case and allow us to explore a way to settle the matter without the need for Court action.
During negotiations we will conduct appointments either by phone or in person and send letters on your behalf in an effort to achieve a negotiated outcome. We will recommend setting an upper limit of legal costs for negotiations to ensure you do not spend good money for no likely outcome. With our family law experience we can usually tell whether your case is capable of resolution without Court action by the time this limit has been reached.
To get an estimate of the legal costs for negotiations, please call us to arrange a no obligation free first interview.
If the matter is settled by negotiation this is a very low-cost resolution for you compared with going to court for a decision – and I do like to see whether this can be achieve without going to court.
Going to Court and associated costs
Sometimes parties can’t negotiate a final settlement, or there are a few main issues they just can’t agree on.
In parenting cases, there can be very differing views by each party as to what parenting arrangements are appropriate.
In other cases there may be grounds of urgency, such as a risk one party will dispose of a valuable asset, or risk to children, which means Court action is necessary without negotiating first.
In either circumstance, the next step is to formally file legal proceedings in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.
The legal costs in your case will depend on a number of factors. However, in general terms the following issues can affect your legal costs:
- The type of case.
- The complexity of the issues involved.
- The number of issues in dispute between the parties or in other words, whether the parties are at opposites in terms of what they want from the case and their concept of what is a fair outcome.
- Whether the parties are prepared to enter into negotiations and make compromises to reach a settlement rathen than having their case go to a trial.
Understandably, most clients are anxious to know how much a Court case will cost them. We will always provide, what we consider, reasonable estimates for legal work based on each individual case. This is something you can discuss with me in a no obligation free first interview.
Each case in Court progresses in stages, and your total legal fees will depend on what stage is reached before your case resolves. As you can appreciate, a case which resolves after a trial involves substantially more work (and therefore more legal costs) than a case which resolves after a mediation.
The Court charges a filing fee which depends on the type of case such as:
- $570 for an application which seeks parenting OR children’s orders.
- $8405 for an application which seeks parenting AND children’s orders.
- $425 to respond to Court documents which have been served on you by your ex-partner (where you will be the respondent).
- $480 to attend a Conciliation Conference (if you are the applicant).
(Please note, although the above fees were current at the time of posting this material. You can check the current fees for these matters here:
In some circumstances parties are eligible for exemption from paying the court fee, particularly if you are receiving a means-tested Commonwealth Government pension.
There is also a process server fee incurred as the Court documents once filed, must be physically served on your ex-partner by a process server. This fee is usually $110 – $120 inc GST.
The first stage up to the first court date
In terms of the documents to be filed, in a parenting case you will need to file an initiating application/response, possibly an affidavit which sets out your evidence of the history of your matter and relevant events, and a separate notice of risk/child abuse.
In a property settlement case you will need to file an initiating application/response, possibly an affidavit which sets out your evidence of the history of your matter and relevant evidence, and a financial statement which sets out your financial circumstances.
After the documents have been filed with the Court you will receive a first court date.
At the first court date the Judge or Registrar will make interim orders which detail how your case will progress.
In a parenting case, a Judge or Registrar will make children’s orders outlining the interim arrangements for time the children will spend with each of the parties.
In a property settlement case, a Judge or Registrar will make orders about issues such as valuation of assets and disclosure to each other of relevant documents.
A general range of the legal estimated costs for us to prepare these documents and attend the first hearing at Court is $4,800 to $6,500 inc GST, depending on the complexity of your particular matter.
If your case is complex then your legal costs will likely be more than this, to get an accurate estimate for your matter, please call us to arrange a no obligation free first interview.
The second stage
For the second stage of your Court case and beyond, the total legal fees will depend on the precise issues in dispute between the parties and the individual circumstances of the particular case.
It is not really possible for a family lawyer to provide you with a reasonable cost estimate of the second stage until the facts in dispute are known but we can and will provide you with an estimate of the legal costs of the second stage well before you incur any liability to pay these costs.
How long will my case take?
How long your case will take to resolve is another important question most people would like to know the answer to right out of the gate.
This is certainly understandable – most people want to get their family law case resolved as quickly as possible so they can stop paying legal costs and get on with their life.
The dilemma for most family lawyers in answering this question iafter an initial meeting with you, or early in the case, is that as things progress the other party may raise issues which were not expected to be raised.
In general terms, the types of cases which can take some time to resolve are:
- Where the goals and expectations of each party to the case are wildly different to one another, meaning they have opposing positions, and opposite ideas of what is a “just and equitable” outcome or what is in the best interests of their children.
- A type of case where the parties’ positions are incompatible with one another in the extreme or one party has a “winner take all” attitude.
An example of a type of case which would take some time to resolve is a parenting case where one parent wants to relocate interstate or overseas with the child. In these cases, there is very little room for negotiation or compromise and consequently they are more likely to go to a trial. Another example would be a situation where one party alleges the other party sexually abused the children of the parties. This is again an “all or nothing” scenario which usually means the case has to be decided by a Judge at trial.
An example of a type of property settlement case which could take some time to resolve is where both parties want to remain living in the matrimonial home. Again, this is a situation where there is very little room for the parties to negotiate. Yet another example is where there is a dispute over whether a de facto relationship exists between the parties. If there is no de facto relationship, the Court does not have jurisdiction to make property settlement orders, so a lot of time and energy in the case will be spent addressing evidence towards the threshold issue. This means the case takes much longer.
Where matters cannot be resolved the case can presently take about 12 months and sometimes more. However, Court statistics indicate that 95% of all cases settle and do not go to full trial. A trial is not a situation that lawyers wish upon their clients, but when parties are unable to reach an agreement there is no alternative.
On the other hand, the types of cases which can be resolved in a shorter amount of time are:
- Where the parties’ respective positions are very close, and there is very little for them to resolve before they have agreed on a settlement.
- Where the two parties still have a good relationship with one another (usually where they are amicably co-parenting children together after separation) and so both are prepared to make compromises to maintain that relationship.
- Where the parties have agreed to a property settlement “in principle” however just need some help working out the dollar values and figures.
An example of a type of parenting orders case which can be resolved in a shorter amount of time is a parenting case where it is agreed the children will live with one parent, and the dispute is over the amount of time the children will spend with another parent (e.g. 4 nights as opposed to 2 nights each fortnight).
An example of a property settlement case which can be resolved in a short amount of time is where the parties are only 10 -15% apart on the settlement split, or in dollar terms the amount of difference between the parties is less than $50,000. Or for example, where the primary issue in the case is whether a certain asset should be included in the asset pool or not, or some other small issue.
Standard time frames
It is very difficult for a lawyer to predict in advance precisely what will occur in your case as each case is different.
However, I can provide you a range of time frames and legal fees based on our experience of dealing with cases of a similar type to yours.
In our experience, most cases fall in the shorter time frame, or somewhere in the middle of the time frames below:
- For property settlement consent orders, a standard case would take 3-6 months to resolve.
- For contested litigation regarding property settlement or children’s arrangements in the Federal Circuit Court which settles after some court attendances, a Conciliation Conference, or negotiations after a family report, a standard case would take 6-12 months to resolve.
- For contested litigation regarding property settlement and/or children’s arrangements in the Federal Circuit Court which proceeds to a trial, a standard case would take 12 – 18 months to resolve.
- For a complex case in the Family Court for either children’s arrangements or property settlement cases, the amount of time depends on the circumstances of the case and its complexity, however it would take more than 18 months to resolve.
What makes a case complex?
Property settlement cases
Factors which can make a case complex are:
- The type of properties owned by each party, for example if the parties are running a business.
- The complexity of the parties’ asset structure, for example a family trust with corporate trustee, self-managed-superannuation fund or similar.
- Where the parties own assets overseas and there are jurisdictional issues involved.
- The complexity of the factual circumstances of the case. For example, the extent the parties acquired and disposed of property during the relationship.
- Whether there are additional issues to be determined outside of the division of parties’ assets. For example, if there is a dispute over whether a de facto relationship exists, or if one party is out of time to bring Court proceedings, or there is a jurisdictional dispute.
Parenting cases
Factors which can make a parenting case complex are:
- Where there are significant issues of domestic violence, drug use, or severe parental conflict.
- If the children involved have disabilities or special needs.
- Cases which involve allegations of serious criminal conduct by one party against the other or against a child, including child sexual abuse.
- Cases where there are multiple parties to the proceedings, e.g. both parents and grandparents are involved.
- Where one parent is actively alienating a child from their relationship with the other parent.
These lists are not exhaustive, and provide a guide only. Ultimately the best way to find out if your case is complex is to speak to us about it.
Divorce Application
A divorce application cannot be made unless the parties have been separated for 12 months.
Yes, we can do a fixed fee for a standard divorce application for you.
The Court fee to file a divorce application is $1,100. You must pay this to the Court irrespective of whether you have a lawyer assisting you.
Some parties may be eligible for a fee reduction and so the filing fee would be $365..
You will need to pay a licensed process server to physically serve the papers on your ex-partner. The process server fee is normally $110 – $120 inc GST. You are not permitted to serve documents on your ex-partner yourself.
We can do all the legal work in the preparation of the divorce application for you for a fixed fee of $990 inc GST. This does not extend to an attendance at the divorce hearing which in many cases is not necessary. (This fee assumes that, in the case of married couples, you can provide us with your marriage certificate which is in English).
The Court publishes a guide on how to do a divorce yourself. Most divorces are straightforward and are largely an administrative process.
We always encourage clients to review this guide to see if they feel confident making their own divorce application. It is our experience however that many client’s start out attempting this themselves but find it too much of a burden . See how you go with this, but if you find it too difficult then call us and we will be happy to schedule a free first interview to discuss your application.
If you have children under 18 years of age, then you will need to attend the divorce hearing. If you do not have children then you do not need to attend.
However, sometimes there can be complexities to a divorce application such as:
- One party disputes the date of separation, claiming it has been less than 12 months since separation.
- The parties have been married less than 2 years.
- You cannot locate your spouse to serve the Court documents on them.
- One spouse has changed their name from their married or maiden name since separation.
In these circumstances you should take advantage of a free first interview.