Navigating Family Court Litigation
Many of our clients often find going to court confusing and intimidating. As Family Lawyers, we completely understand those trepidations and are here to support our clients in navigating their property and/or parenting matters through the litigation process.
In 2021, the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia was established with a clear pathway through litigation to help parties resolve their issues as quickly as possible.
We’ve outlined what those steps are to help our client understand what they can expect if they have to resort to litigation to resolve the property and parenting issues.
Step 1: First Court Event
This is a directions hearing that will be listed about 1 – 2 months after the application has been filed.
The directions hearing will involve your lawyer (or yourself if self-represented) to inform the court that:
All documents have been filed correctly and served on the other party;
That you have made a proper attempt to resolve the issues between yourself and the opposing party (besides in certain circumstances);
The costs and disbursements that each party have had so far in their case and what the future estimate will be; and
Your lawyer will inform the court on how long they think the final hearing will go for.
The purposes of this directions hearing is to ensure that a genuine attempt has been made to resolve the matter in question, to identify the issues in question, to determine whether an interim hearing is needed (see below for what this is), to determine whether it should be heard in court or referred to external dispute resolution and to make orders and directions on what the parties need to do next in this proceeding.
For children’s matters the court will consider whether an Independent Children’s Lawyer is needed.
For financial matters a timetable for documents to be served and what expert evidence is needed.
Step 2: Interim Hearing (will not happen in every case)
Not every matter will have the step of an interim hearing as its purpose is to provide a determination on an issue that cannot wait until the final hearing as it is not practical or it is urgent. This might be who the child lives with until a final hearing where a final order will be made (this could change).
Step 3: Dispute resolution
The court will direct dispute resolution to occur within 5 months of the first court event unless there are circumstances which this would not be practicable or safe to do so. There are multiple types of dispute resolution services which are:
Private mediation;
Legal-aid/community based Family Dispute Resolutions;
Arbitration;
Conciliation conference;
Judicial settlement conference;
Family dispute resolution conference with a Judicial Registrar.
The people who are conducting these dispute resolutions will give the parties a dispute resolution certificate outlining whether the issues have been resolved, not resolved or partly resolved.
It is important that both parties do attend and try to resolve the issues in question and done so in good faith.
Step 4: Compliance and readiness hearing
The compliance and readiness hearing will be listed as close to 6 months as possible from the date of filing the initial application.
The purposes of the compliance and readiness hearing is to ensure:
There has been a genuine attempt to resolve the issues outside of court unless unsafe to do so;
That both parties have disclosed documents (in a property settlement one of those documents would be bank statements;
All previous court orders and directions have been compiled with;
That parties are ready for the final hearing (with evidence and issues at hand).
Step 5: Trial management hearing (will not happen with every case)
The Judge may decide that it is necessary for a trial management hearing, which its main purpose is to make any other directions to the parties to ensure readiness for the final hearing.
Step 6: Final hearing
The final hearing will be set on a date that is, where possible, no longer than 12 months from the commencement of proceedings.
The final hearing is where the Judge or Judicial Registrar will make their decision on the outcome of the issues in dispute.
Want to know more?
Obviously. everyone’s case is unique and this designed as a guide only. If you need advice regarding your family law dispute, seperation or parenting issues, then we invite you to contact us direct or use the button below to get started with us online!
