Drafting Essentials in Family Law – a recorded lunchtime online conference

Duration: Approximately 2.5 Hours

Hear from the experts at this online conference. You can watch it on your computer or on your portable electronic device from anywhere.

The conference will be based on our highly successful video webinar technology: there'll be a chairperson and presentations.

One registration can be shared by colleagues within the same firm utilising the same login.

THE PROGRAM

Session 1: Best Intentions in Parenting Plans and Parenting Consent Orders

It is often with the best intentions that separated parents set out to negotiate arrangements concerning their children, but the devil lies in the detail as to whether these arrangements can be workable, sufficiently flexible to cope with life’s vagaries and, in the end, enforceable. This session will provide a guide to practitioners to drafting thorough and workable parenting consent orders, including:

• Parenting plan, consent orders or both – balancing the pro’s and con’s

• Determining what should and should not be in a parenting order – is it all up for grabs?
• Clarifying your client’s wants, needs and the bottom line
• What are the characteristics of “good” parenting arrangements?
• How detailed do the arrangements need to be?
• Drafting tips for logical, clear and practical orders
• Key matters for drafters:

• The major issues to be addressed
• Are there any particular problems? Safety and risk considerations
• Taking the ages of the children into account
• Is it possible to future proof the orders?
• Can and should orders extend to moderating behaviour and emotions?

• Drafting aids – calendars, timetables and maps
• Tips for negotiation and managing client’s emotions
• At what point do consent orders become unworkable?

Session 2: For Richer and Poorer: Drafting Watertight Property Consent Orders

There are many advantages to settling disputes through consent orders, but there are also many potential pitfalls in drafting them. This session takes a deep-dive into the preparation and drafting of an application for and minutes of proposed orders for property and financial matters, including:

• When is a property consent order appropriate? Considerations from case law and other requirements
• Guidance for completing the consent order application – due diligence, disclosure and client co-operation
• Tips for setting out financial information clearly and concisely
• How to get from here to there: assembling a property distribution roadmap
• Essential matters for property orders and drafting advice, including:

• Asset identification and allocation
• Time limits for sale and distribution
• Apportionment and responsibility for liabilities
• Third party actions and consents

• When will a court decline to make a consent order and options for redrafting and reconsideration
• Cases and examples

Session 3: Drafting Meaningful Family Law Correspondence

Insta-communications have led to quick and easy correspondence, but are not a substitute where a carefully crafted and informative communication is essential to set out the facts, intentions and/or responses in a complex family breakdown situation. This session provides a guide to informed and thoughtful letter writing, including:

• Developing a roadmap for communications
• Structuring and why it is important
• What am I trying to say and what is the best way to say it?
• Reply in haste, repent in leisure – tone, tenor and misconstruction
• Understanding the difference between assertion and aggression and why it is important
• A practical guide to effective responses
• Assessing your client’s preferences and needs as a guide to communications strategy
• What to check before pressing “send”