Don’s Family Law Blog

“Paedophile insult results in a $30,000 payout”

 A recent report by social researcher Lyn Craig, the subject of an article in The Australian today finds that  where the parents are together, Aussie dads  spend just over a minute a day alone with their children during the week and while they do spend longer periods of time at the weekends, it is more likely to be taking them to sport or the park rather than doing the “drudge work such as feeding, bathing or ferrying children to and from school or childcare“.

This is interesting when compared with The Weekend Australian’s article reporting a survey conducted by the Child Support Agency that finds that “three-quarters of divorced fathers want to have custody of their children for at lest 50 per cent of the time, while as many as 36 per cent wish they could have their children all of the time.”

Is it a case of “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”?

Some time ago the Family Court introduced so called simplified procedures.  Out went affidavits of discovery and in came obligatory disclosure.  Unfortunately, it seems, out also went an understanding by solicitors of relevant disclosure.  Time and time again I am being pounded by inexperienced/incapable solicitors to produce documents on behalf of clients that, in the end, will have no bearing on the result.  They make this a precondition to settlement discussions. 

The result … butchered trees, sweat and huge legal fees for their clients (as they eagerly digest irrelevant fodder).  

Courts need to manage this process much more effectively.

Equity is a powerful tool in the hands of a party to a family property dispute. If this is an area of interest to you, a paper has been written by Adam Cooper examining the issue of Constructive trusts and property disputes 

Take the money, for now anyway.  The current financial turmoil brings uncertainty to property settlements for separated couples.  What is the value of assets today or in the near future?  Property settlements constructed on today’s valuations may, by the time transfer and payment is made, be markedly unfair to one party.

A money pay out is a safer option … but which bank should hold the payout?