• Family and Defacto Law •
Firstly we organize a meeting with you to discuss the details of your matter and clarify the procedure involved. We organize a Service and Cost Agreement, which outlines costs, procedure and our commitment to you in the way of ‘expert advice and great service’.
After discussing the legal issues with you, we determine the financial circumstances of the marriage, the relative contributions of each party to the marriage (both financial and non-financial), and the residence and/or contact arrangements for the children.
If the parties have come to an agreement with respect to the division of property and/or arrangements for the children, then Terms of Settlement can be prepared and filed in either the Family Court or Local Court. If Terms of Settlement are filed we estimate your matter will be finalised in 4 to 6 weeks.
If the parties are in dispute, then the work involved is more complex, time consuming and costly. First, it may be necessary to write to the other party and request details of their financial circumstances in order to properly advise you. After discussion with you, we can put an offer of settlement to the other spouse. If the other spouse does not provide their financial details or accept an offer of settlement, we will then lodge an Application for Final Orders at the Family Court.
In order to prepare the Application we will need to arrange a meeting with you to obtain the necessary details. Once we have completed the necessary forms and you have signed them, they are filed at the court.
The Application is then served on the other spouse. They then have to file and serve a Response. The parties attend a Directions Hearing, which is the first appearance at court and usually occurs one month after the Application is filed. The purpose of the Directions Hearing is to determine the nature of the dispute and to ensure a response has been filed.
If the matter is ready to proceed to the next stage it is set down for a Conciliation Conference, which is a meeting with the registrar to discuss the prospects of settlement in approximately three month's time. If there is a dispute over the children, then the Registrar may direct, or the parties can request, a Counseling session with a Family Court Counselor. This will occur prior to the Conciliation Conference.
We will then need to arrange a further meeting with you to prepare for the Conciliation Conference. After this conference, the matter is listed for a Pre Hearing Conference before the Registrar. A hearing date will be set and this may be more than twelve months after the initial application is filed.
Prior to the Hearing we will brief a Barrister, prepare the case, obtain and gather evidence and prepare witnesses. The Hearing is then conducted and a Judgement is given once the Judge or Federal Magistrate has had time to consider the evidence.
The estimated finalisation date for your matter is approximately 12 months after the application is filed however, the matter can be finalised at any time if the parties agree to settle.
In matters where the full scope of the work you ask us to attend to is not known at the outset, we will charge on an hourly basis.
We have chosen a minimum three-minute unit of time as a commercially practical unit, given that serving you properly involves us making notes of even short activities, filing and recording details.
- Time spent by the Principal of the firm for work requiring the skill of a solicitor at a rate of $240.00 per hour.
- Time spent by an employed solicitor for work requiring the skill of a solicitor at a rate of $180.00 per hour.
- Time spent by legal assistants for work not requiring the skill of a solicitor at the rate of $120.00 or $80.00 per hour, depending on the skill required.
- Photocopies at the rate of $1.00 per page.
- Facsimiles at the rate of $1.00 per page.
We ask that you pay into the firm's Trust Account the 'Initial Advance' of $1000.00 (cash or cheque only) on account of future costs and disbursements. The firm may request further advances throughout the matter.
If the firm's costs and disbursements do not exceed the total amount of the advance, the firm will, upon completion of the matter, promptly refund the balance of the advance to you.
If you would like us to assist you, or you require further information,
call us on 02 4969 1800 to make an appointment.