Courtroom Strategy in Family Law: Key Tools of the Trade – a live lunchtime online conference

Session 1: Managing and Responding to Defective Applications in Family Law Proceedings

The management and response to defective applications in family law proceedings can present significant challenges for family lawyers. Such applications can be time-consuming, expensive, and can cause unnecessary delays in the court process. At the same time, the consequences of failing to respond appropriately to defective applications can be severe, leading to adverse outcomes for clients. This practical session outlines how practitioners can maximise the benefits from the extensive range of tools and mechanisms available in family law when they are served with a defective or incomplete application. It covers:

• The rules and court procedure of summary disposal and strike out applications and when it may (or may not) be appropriate to run them
• Tips for how to successfully run (and defend) a strikeout application in the family law courts
• Suggestions for drafting pleadings to protect against such applications
• A guide on what to do when faced with a defective application filed by your client
• Mimimising the impact of such applications on clients

Session 2: Cross-border Family Law: Advising Clients when Other Jurisdictions are in Play

Today’s increasing globalisation means that the numbers of couples and families who are residents, own property have property interests and/or run businesses in other countries is on the rise. While Australian lawyers cannot (and should not) provide advice to their clients about their legal entitlements in other countries, they do need to have a basic understanding of how other countries may deal with property or children in order to formulate advice to the client about their Australian family law options, identify potential forum issues, and know when to seek advice from a qualified lawyer in the relevant country. Through a series of practical case studies, this session will explore:

• The forum tests in Australia for family law property and parenting matters
• Tips and tricks in running family law property settlement matters which involve property in other countries, including England, New Zealand, the United States and China (Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China)

• An overview of how family law property settlements and parenting disputes tend to be handled in those other countries
• How to identify potential issues which may arise for their clients involving other jurisdictions
• When (and how) to seek localised specialist advice or assistance

Session 3: Til Death Do Us Part: When a Party Dies Prior to Final Orders in Family Law

The death of a family member is stressful at the best of times, let alone when the death of that family member coincides with a breakdown of the relationship and a family law property settlement. This session explores:

• The impact that death of a former spouse has on family law property settlement proceedings (when proceedings have not begun)
• What happens when a party to current family law property settlement proceedings passes away during proceedings and how to navigate your way through evidentiary issues
• Evidentiary issues that can arise when the primary witness is deceased, including how to disprove allegations using hypothetical case studies