separation Archives

Practical Suggestions for Avoiding Mistakes in Family Law Disclosure

13 August 2025 9:34 am Leave a Comment

In Family Law matters and particularly in property settlement matters, exchanging disclosure is an integral part of the negotiation process to accurately ascertain the asset pool that is the subject of the negotiations. More importantly, all parties have an ongoing obligation to provide full and frank disclosure.

Whilst not the most action-packed or exciting task, providing complete, timely and up to date financial information will save you from significant heartache in the long run as your matter progresses. Not only are there legal consequences for failing to provide disclosure, without disclosure the negotiations will stall and there is no way to prove your financial position. In short, you cannot accurately or fairly divide the pie if you don’t know how big the pie and the slices are to begin with.

Some practical tips to assist you in gathering your financial disclosure documents are:

1. Start gathering documents soon after separation to avoid delays or being locked out of your accounts.

2. Ensure you are familiar with and able to access your online banking, superannuation portals and investment portfolios.

3. Organise your documents clearly and chronologically, this will make it easier to keep track of what you have disclosed and avoid missing anything.

4. If you have larger assets like property, providing a real estate appraisal or valuation will simplify conversations around their worth, given property markets often fluctuate.

5. If you purchase or sell any assets or experience any change in financial circumstances (such as loss of income or incurring a new debt), ensure you keep records and disclosure this as soon as possible.

6. Keep an index of items you have disclosed so that you can track any outstanding items and/or provide evidence that you have complied with your duty.

7. If you are unsure if you need to disclose a document, it is safer to disclose it than risk non-compliance with your duty.

8. Do not hide, alter or destroy any financial information – this can result in penalties under the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth). However, if you are concerned about your safety, you can redact information such as locations so long that it does not alter the purpose of the document provided.

Andrea Cooper, Law Student and Paralegal at Zande Law Solicitors, Suite 9, Norwinn Centre, 15 Discovery Drive, North Lakes, is the author of this article, training in the area of Family Law.

The information in this article is merely a guide and is not a full explanation of the law. This firm cannot take responsibility for any action readers take based on this information. When making decisions that could affect your legal rights, please contact us for professional advice.

Next Article: Freedom of the Will?

How to let the kids have their say

14 May 2025 12:28 pm Leave a Comment

After a relationship breakdown, it’s important for parents to consider the future arrangements for their kids. This can be problematic if relying too much on the child’s perspective. Experts tell us that children often say what they believe each parent wants to hear, resulting in conflicting information being presented to both parents. The result of this (usually unintentional) behaviour from children is that both adults think that they are adhering to the child’s wishes, but they are negotiating the arrangements based on different information, leading to inconsistencies. Therefore, it’s important to try and find the balance between allowing children to express their wishes, having regard to their maturity levels, and avoiding putting too much pressure on them.

An effective approach to addressing this issue is to partake in a ‘child inclusive mediation,’ where the kids meet with an independent consultant who is usually an expert in social work or child psychology. This consultant allows the children to express their views without pressure. The consultant then relays the child’s views to the parents during mediation. This process helps to identify any areas of concern and ways in which the children can be best supported moving forward. With this insight, parents can negotiate more effectively, leading to an agreement that genuinely reflects their children’s needs and wishes.

Child-inclusive mediations are particularly effective as children grow older or if one parent has been rejected and the adults cannot agree on why this is occurring. The major benefit is that while the parents ultimately make the decisions, the children can feel as though they’ve been heard, which makes for happier households for everyone involved.

The information in this article is merely a guide and not a full explanation of the law. This firm cannot take responsibility for any action readers take based on this information. When making decisions that could affect your legal rights, please contact us for professional advice.

Joshua Noble is an Accredited Family Law Specialist and Senior Associate at Zande Law, 3/15 Middle Street, Cleveland. To contact Joshua for advice, phone 07 3385 0999.

Next Article: The Changes Are Coming

The Changes Are Coming

23 April 2025 11:00 am Leave a Comment

Significant changes are coming to Family Law which will affect separating couples in a variety of ways. While some of the amendments are unlikely to make a major difference in settlements, the headline-grabbing change is that the Court must explicitly consider and take into account the effect of any family violence when dividing assets or making orders for spousal maintenance.

The effect of this change is expected by some to be significant and will be taken into account when the Court evaluates everyone’s contributions to the relationship and when the Court considers the effect any violence has had on someone’s current and future ability to earn an income. Potentially, survivors of family violence will see their overall share of the combined assets increased in multiple ways due to this new law.

The effect of this could be wide-ranging given that the recent statistics show that more than 80% of cases in litigation involve allegations of violence by at least one person.

Some other amendments that are likely to be more relevant for the majority of separating couples include:

Considerations of how liabilities are incurred;

The effect of wasting formerly-owned assets;

The need of either party to provide appropriate housing for children;

Making attendance at straight forward divorce hearings optional for everyone; and

Enabling the Court to make orders in relation to the family pet, such as, that one person have sole ownership, that the animal be transferred by consent to another person or for it to be sold.

A lot of the changes commence 10 June 2025 but some of the amendments will apply to proceedings already underway but not yet finalised. Given the significance of these changes, anyone going through a separation should consider getting specific advice as to how their settlement may be affected.

Joshua Noble is an Accredited Family Law Specialist at Zande Law located at Suite 3, Jade Chambers, 15 Middle Street, Cleveland. To contact Josh for advice, please phone (07) 3385 0999 to schedule an appointment.

Next Article: Joint Parental Responsibility and Medical Treatment

Avoiding The Snowball Effect

26 March 2025 11:35 am Leave a Comment

The golden rule in coparenting is that effective communication is crucial.

It can be tempting to ignore or delay replying when you see a message from the other parent and, let’s face it, most people would prefer not talking to an ex if they had the choice. However, this is where the problems often start and not communicating (or not doing so appropriately) can easily make everything worse.

Where it is safe to do so, having a quality communication channel with the other parent prevents small problems from turning into big ones and the key to stopping this snowballing effect is for both parents to follow some fundamental rules of communication.

Be polite and start with a greeting.

Don’t ever insult the other parent or imply that they’re not doing as good a job.

Keep the messages to the point and factual so the other parent can respond in the same manner.

Always get the other parent’s side of the story on any incident first rather than jumping to conclusions.

Assume that everything you write will be brought up at some point in the future to someone important.

Acknowledging receipt of messages from the other parent is important and, if you can’t reply straight away, provide a reasonable timeframe for when you’ll respond.

If your child misses a call from the other parent, organise a time for them to call back.

If you need some help, try using a parenting communication app but always call if there is an emergency.

There are plenty more rules, but these will stop a lot of molehills from turning into mountains which makes for a far smoother coparenting experience. If nothing else, it’s always beneficial for kids when they can see both parents on the same page and getting along.

Next Article: Parenting Coordination and Family Law Parenting Orders

The Benefits in Settling

2 October 2024 10:54 am Comments Off

In the Court’s most recently available end of financial year report, the Brisbane Registry topped the country in Divorce Applications despite Sydney and Melbourne having approximately twice the population. Interestingly, the gap widened when it came to matters settling by way of Consent Orders and again Brisbane led the nation with approximately 40% more cases being resolved than Melbourne in second place.

The benefits in settling cannot be underestimated and parties should always consider these when negotiating:

The savings in legal fees to both parties; Most family lawyers often (and should) describe this as money that is better spent on the kids rather than continuing to fight. The cost in compromising to both parties is often far less than the cost of litigating through to a Trial;

The delay in settlement can hold up one or both parties from receiving cash payments; While no one has a crystal ball to determine what will happen with house prices, the reality over recent years has been an exponential rise throughout the Brisbane region – so the cost to re-enter the property market can become more expensive than settling at an earlier stage of the negotiations;

If money is tied up in Trust; inflation erodes the buying power of those funds the longer the case remains unresolved;

The effect that fighting will have on your coparenting relationship; Parents have many years to raise children together and it is in the kids’ best interests to be protected from any toxicity between the adults. Beyond their childhood, there are often milestone events such as graduations, weddings and grandchildren that people wish to be a part of which can be jeopardised if there is family drama following a bitter Divorce; and

It brings an end to the emotional and psychological toll that can occur when negotiating the division of assets or parenting arrangements. On current estimates, litigation can comfortably take more than a year and this only drags out the healing process following separation.

There is a real benefit in having control over your outcome rather than leaving it into the hands of the Court. Sometimes a Trial can become necessary (in some limited circumstances) but at least it seems that Brisbane residents are seeing the benefits in reaching agreements.

Joshua Noble is an Accredited Specialist in Family Law working at Zande Law Solicitors, Suite 9, Norwinn Centre, 15 Discovery Drive, North Lakes practising from our Cleveland offices at Suite 3, Jade Chambers, 15 Middle Street, Cleveland. To contact Josh for advice, please phone (07) 3385 0999 to schedule an appointment.

The information in this article is merely a guide and not a full explanation of the law. This firm cannot take responsibility for any action readers take based on this information. When making decisions that could affect your legal rights, please contact us for professional advice.

Next Article: Purchasing a Property with Tenants

The February 2020 Senate Inquiry into Domestic Violence – Part 2

13 August 2020 4:20 pm Comments Off

The February 2020 Senate Inquiry into Domestic Violence

Did it fail?

PART 2

Well, let’s look at some of the recent statistics:

The overall number of deaths has fluctuated but shown no sustained decrease;
There’s been less physical violence since the 90’s but an increase in sexual assaults; and
In Queensland, we’ve had a double-digit increase in various domestic violence applications.

If the numbers show an increase in applications, is this a failure? Or have we merely been successful in pulling back the rug from an issue much greater than anyone originally thought? One report stressed that a number of factors contributed to this such as increased confidence in victims, improved court accessibility and changing police practices.

The government’s focus has been on changing cultural attitudes and early prevention which is much more difficult to measure. In 2017, a national inquiry revealed a mixed result in the scorecard of society’s views – we’re more aware that family violence goes beyond just physical encounters and we’re also more willing to intervene when seeing someone verbally abusing their partner. However, the report also said Australia was going ‘backwards’ in some areas such as understanding that men are more likely to perpetrate family violence.

What standard then do we use in measuring success in our efforts? We simply don’t know and there are too many variables to definitively answer the question at this point in history. As an example: since our population and volume of applications for protection has climbed but our number of deaths hasn’t, this is at least shows some measurable improvement in the total percentage of families who suffer from the ultimate tragedy – even if the problem hasn’t been eradicated entirely.

Our latest inquiry suggested a ‘wait and see’ approach in examining whether our existing efforts will have lasting success before Australia looks at a new National Plan. This cautious answer was deemed insufficient and a new inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence has already been proposed to be answered by a different committee.

However, if the issue is rooted in evolving societal attitudes, is this new inquiry fated to come to the same conclusion as the last one?

It takes time to change a culture but if the latest statistics are anything to go by, we’re making some progress. Let’s hope the inquiry finds where we can improve so we can Stop it at the Start.

Joshua Noble is a Solicitor at Zande Law Solicitors, Suite 7, Norwinn Centre, 15 Discovery Drive, North Lakes. To contact Joshua for advice, phone 3385 0999.

The February 2020 Senate Inquiry into Domestic Violence – Part 1

23 July 2020 4:35 pm Comments Off

The February 2020 Senate Inquiry into Domestic Violence.

Did it fail?

PART 1

Following the horrific murder of Hannah Clarke and her three children in February this year, our Federal Senate referred an inquiry to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs committee to report on and grade the efficiency of our current strategies in combating domestic and family violence, where improvements could be made and how effective we have been as a country in meeting our targets.

The result? After three months, the report was handed in early and, in a “somewhat unprecedented” move, the committee failed to hold a single hearing or seek any submissions from public bodies. Ultimately, the committee noted the comprehensive work done in the previous inquiries and felt that another lengthy and wide-ranging one at the present time would be of limited benefit and divert attention and resources away from front-line services.

In a scathing rebuke, South Australia’s Senator Rex Patrick tore shreds through the inaction of the committee to advise on whether our current measures are being implemented effectively. At face value, it might be easy to agree with Mr Patrick that the February 2020 inquiry was a colossal waste of time and taxpayer money. But before we all condemn this committee and label all the Government initiatives as ineffective, it is important to look at both the statistics and see what work was already underway before the February 2020 Senate inquiry was commissioned.

While these stories rarely make the front page, in 2010 Australia adopted a National Plan with the goal of a significant and sustained reduction in violence against women and their children. Since 2015, we’ve already looked into how effective our measures have been on multiple occasions and one as recently as June last year.

Although each State has separate legislation for domestic violence (and the criminal act of breaching protective orders), there have been significant improvements championed nationwide. In recent years we’ve seen court orders now being recognised across state lines, the establishment of a Minister for Women Cabinet position, greater cooperation between police agencies, the creation of a specialised Family Violence Court and record levels of federal funding towards tackling family violence. The public and private availability of emergency assistance for victims looking to escape violent situations are also undoubtedly excellent initiatives.

Overall, the focus on early prevention programs such as Queensland’s ‘Stop it at the Start’ ad campaign and positive relationships being taught in our schools as part of the curriculum have been assessed to be having a positive effect though it is still early days.

However, the obvious questions remain – how do we measure progress in this area? Can we be confident the current government-led initiatives have any chance of success? In part two of this series we will tackle these questions and more.

Joshua Noble is a Solicitor at Zande Law Solicitors, Suite 7, Norwinn Centre, 15 Discovery Drive, North Lakes. To contact Joshua for advice, phone 3385 0999.

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