Introduction During the past 12 months there have been two major changes to the Family Law Act 1975 (“the Act”), two sets of changes to the Family Law Rules 2004 and to the Family Law Regulations 1984 and one set of changes to the Federal Magistrates Court Rules 2001. Other legislation has made relatively minor changes to the...
Introduction The most sweeping change to the legislation in this book since the publication of the last edition was the renaming of the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia as the Federal Circuit Court of Australia. This received widespread publicity. Less publicised was the insertion of two further Parts into the Family Law...
Introduction Legislative change in family law has been unusually slow in the past 18 months which has allowed time for the Family Law Courts to consider and consolidate their approach to recent legislative and judicial changes. Since the last edition of this book, there have been two sets of amendments to the Family Law Rules...
Every year there are obvious amendments to family law legislation, but also many other pieces of legislation which do not, by reference to their name, alert family lawyers to their relevance. These amendments are, of course, incorporated into the online version of the Autsralian Family Law Act 1975 with Regulations and Rules...
In the last 12 months or so there have been some significant cases under the Family Law Act 1975. Those dealt with in this article cover: Spousal maintenance - Hall The definition of “financial resource” Life expectancy - Fontana A lottery win early in the marriage Add-backs Bankruptcy basics Whether a financial agreement can...
The two Bills restructuring the Family Law Courts have been delayed by Parliament for further consideration in 2019. This gave family lawyers hope that 2018 would be a quiet legislative year. But, we were mistaken. Instead, the floodgates have opened. First we had the Family Law Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures)...
The Australian Law Reform Commission Discussion Paper on the Review of the Family Law System was released on 2 October 2018. The Discussion Paper is over 300 pages, asks 33 questions and makes 124 proposals for changes to the family law system. Many other proposals and suggestions are embedded in the Discussion Paper and are...
"Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got till it's gone They paved paradise And put up a parking lot" "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell What was the original purpose of the Family Court of Australia (FCofA)? The Family Court of Australia (FCofA) was established in 1976 as a best practice model offering...
The Family Law Amendment (Family Violence & Other Measures) Act 2018 ("Family Violence Act") commenced operation on 1 September 2018. Its changes will impact on the law, practice and procedures in family law matters, not only where there are family violence orders. Although the Bill received considerable attention when it...
De-federation and Family Law Fragmentation Family law never stagnates. Legislative reforms since the introduction of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) have often either followed societal developments or, more frequently, led or accompanied them. However, the next 12 months has the potential for even greater change for family...