If your relationship ends, you and your partner need to sort out your financial affairs, parenting matters and decisions need to be made about distributing property owned by you and/or your partner.

If parties to a marriage or a de facto relationship reach an agreement between themselves regarding children and/or property settlement, you can file an Application for Consent Orders to be approved by the Family Court without having to commence protracted Family Court proceedings or you can enter into a Binding Financial Agreement.

We can assist you at all stages of this process, including at mediation, or by negotiation and preparation of the right documents to ensure your agreement is legally biding and enforceable.

A benefit of splitting the parties’ property using Consent Orders (as opposed to a Financial Agreement) is that the orders are approved by the Court. Whereas, a party to a Financial Agreement can apply to the Court for the agreement to be set aside on a number of grounds.

A benefit of splitting the parties’ property using a Financial Agreement (as opposed to Consent Orders) is that the split of assets does not need to be “just and equitable” as is required with Consent Orders. However the split of assets cannot be grossly unjust, as that is one of the grounds upon which a Financial Agreement could be set aside.

Family Court Consent Order

The parties prepare and submit an Application for the Court to make consent orders regarding how their property, financial resources, and liabilities should be shared. This is presuming the parties agree on the orders sought.

Consent Orders can also be submitted for parenting matters.

The Application includes both parties fully disclosing their assets, liabilities and financial resources, and completing statements of truth.

The Application must be filed with the relevant Court filing fee.  The Court will then consider the Application and decide to make the consent orders, or refuse to make the orders and provide the parties with reasons why – which may be for a number of reasons, including if the orders sought are not just and equitable.

Family Court Consent Order Estimated Legal Costs

If you engage a lawyer to assist you with preparing and filing Consent Orders your legal costs could be in the range of $2,000 – $5,000 plus GST for the entire process, provided that the other party agrees with the orders you are seeking.

Binding Financial Agreement

If you want to enter into a Binding Financial Agreement to resolve your financial matter then a draft Financial Agreement is prepared and you obtain legal advice on the Agreement as required under the relevant legislation.

The draft Financial Agreement is then provided to the other party for their review. The other party must get independent legal advice from another lawyer on the Agreement as required under the relevant legislation.

After both parties have got independent legal advice on the Financial Agreement, and the terms are agreed, they may proceed with signing the agreement.

Binding Financial Agreement Estimated Legal Costs

Our costs for preparing a Binding Financial Agreement and providing advice on it as required by the relevant legislation start at $2,800 plus GST, for a straightforward agreement. The costs of the other party getting independent legal advice on the draft Financial Agreement will depend on the lawyer they engage. Our estimated costs for providing advice on Financial Agreements start at $1,500 plus GST.

We provide top tier services and top tier experience at substantially better rates to those of our competitors and we provide fixed fee costs wherever possible for all of our matters.