Family Dispute Resolution and Mediation in Australia

Transcript

Family law mediation. The Family Law Act directs that you must attend family law mediation or family dispute resolution before you file an application for parenting orders or financial orders. Family dispute resolution or FDR is the legal term for services such as mediation that help people to sort out their disputes. It can help you to agree on matters relating to property, money and your children. The FDR practitioner's job is to assist you in discussing the issues and to work through your options to reach an agreement.

They must be impartial. Before they start, they will assess whether your matter is suitable for FDR and tell you about the process, your rights, their qualifications and the fees to be charged. Everything said at a family law mediation is confidential except in exceptional circumstances such as where there has been a threat to someone's life or health or information regarding the commission of a crime. Nothing said can be used in court. Both parties must attend the mediation and, if there are no objections, you can also have a support person.

If you would like your lawyer to be present, you should discuss this with the centre arranging the mediation as it is not always allowed. The family law mediation practitioner will check that everyone understands what is being said and agreed upon. The service is provided by various organisations. Contact details for accredited FDR practitioners can be found on the Family Dispute Resolution Register. If family law mediation does not resolve your matter, the FDR practitioner can suggest other avenues to help you resolve the issues such as family counselling.

If you can reach agreement, you should be aware that changes to your children's care arrangements can affect your entitlements to family assistance and income support payments and to child support. If you don't attend FDR or you do attend but you do not make a genuine effort to reach an agreement, it can affect when your court hearing is listed. You may also be ordered to pay the other person's legal costs. After FDR, you will be given a certificate proving that you have attended FDR to file with your application to the court.

You need this certificate even if you already have orders in relation to the children and want them changed. Your FDR certificate will say either the other party did not attend. Both attended and made a real effort to settle the dispute. Both attended but one of you or both of you did not make a real effort to settle the dispute. Your case is not appropriate for FDR or the FDR practitioner decided it was inappropriate to continue after starting the process.

In certain circumstances, the court may exempt you from filing a certificate including where you are applying for consent orders, you are responding to an application, your matter is urgent, there is or has been a risk of family violence or child abuse. One or both of you can't participate effectively, perhaps due to incapacity or where they live or one of you has breached a court order made in the last 12 months. You will need to provide proof that one of the exemptions apply to you. For child abuse or family violence, you will also need to get advice about other services that can help, such as from a family counsellor or FDR practitioner or by ringing the family relationship advice line on 1800 050 321.

If you reach agreement on arrangements for your children, you can put together a parenting plan. It must be dated and signed by both parents. It can include procedures to change arrangements and resolve any disagreements in future and can be renegotiated at any time. You and your former partner can agree to change a current court parenting order by entering into a parenting plan unless the court has ordered that you can't. There are special rules if you want to include child support in your parenting plan. They are not legally enforceable. If you want to be able to enforce your agreement, you can apply to the court to have it made into a consent order.

You can prepare consent orders yourself or ask your lawyer to do it. The application is filed with the court for approval. It can cover the parenting arrangements for the children as well as financial arrangements. Consent orders have the same legal force as if they had been made by the court after a hearing. You should seek legal advice before signing consent orders. What to do next? If you or someone you know has questions about family law mediation or dispute resolution processes, Go To Court Lawyers Operator Legal Hotline on the retired Go To Court contact number (omitted) where you can talk directly to a lawyer 7am till midnight 7 days a week.

Your call will be treated with the strictest confidentiality and without judgment. The lawyer will assess your matter and recommend a course of action. Should you need a lawyer, even if it is at very short notice, the Legal Hotline staff will be able to arrange legal representation for you. You can also request a call back via the website gotocourt.com.au and a lawyer will call you back to assess your matter.