The Family Law Litigation Tool Box: Strategy and Procedure – recorded online conference

Session 1: Putting Your Best Foot Forward with Family Law Interim Hearings

Significant court delays are an unfortunate reality for family law clients, and are likely to worsen as a result of COVID-19. With parties often stuck in limbo without a resolution for years, getting the right interim decisions is now more important than ever. This session looks at how you can maximise your returns and ensure you achieve a productive outcome for your client. It covers:

• Interim orders – what can they achieve?

• What is the court looking for during interim hearings?
• Defended interim hearings – key issues to consider
• Can the parties agree on some issues?
• Tips and trips for various types of interim hearings:
   
  • parenting
  • property
  • other
     
• Navigating COVID-19 court room procedures for interim hearings
• The role of evidence at interim hearings
• Preparing interim hearing affidavits
• Appeals from interim hearings – practical and procedural issues

Session 2: I Fought the Law and….I won?: Contravention Applications in the FCFCOA

The enforcement of parenting orders has always been problematic in family law. Despite the rule in Rice v Asplund, it is common for contravention proceedings to be treated by some parties as an attempt to relitigate and there is a perception that this trend has increased following, and may be facilitated by, the new approach to contraventions in the FCFCoA. This session will take a deeper dive into these issues, including:

• The new contraventions list and related court procedures under the new FCFCoA and different approaches to managing such matters across registries
• The current status of the principle in Rice v Asplund and whether that principle remains good law and/or has a place in the current court practice and procedure
• How to manage ‘repeat offenders’ and how they may be dealt with by the court in the first and subsequent contravention proceedings
• Guidance and tips for practitioners when faced with this scenario

Session 3: How Late is too Late? Managing Limitation Periods and Applications to Proceed out of Time

The Family Law Act sets quite strict time limits within which separated parties must commence property settlement proceedings. But what options are available when that time limit has already passed? How late is too late? And does it matter why? This session will explore:

• The legal requirements of s.44 of the Family Law Act and the circumstances in which the court has authority to consider out of time applications
• How the law has been applied in recent cases, focusing on the facts in matters which supported a finding of hardship in favour of the applicant
• Practical tips on running and defending out of time applications in practice