While it’s important to know your entitlements in a property settlement, there’s something infinitely more valuable and important for many who are going through separation – your children.

Some common questions we get include:

Who will have custody? How often will I be able to see my children? What happens if my ex-spouse and I disagree on decisions about our children’s schooling, extra-curricular activities or medical treatment? Can I relocate with the children? Does the system treat fathers unfairly?

In Australia, the Courts must consider what’s in “the best interests of the children” when deciding what type of parenting orders to make. There are a range of factors that the Court usually considered when deciding what’s in the children’s best interest. Some of these factors include, for example:

• the nature of a child’s relationship with each parent;
• the maturity of the child;
• the quality of communications between the parents;
• the level of involvement each parent has had with a child; and
• any family violence involving the child or either parent.

We can help you identify the factors that are relevant to you, to enable you to negotiate with your partner from a position of knowledge and strength.

If you are concerned that your ex-spouse may withhold the children from you, harm the children, relocate with the children, or take them overseas without your consent, you may need to act quickly. We can act urgently and decisively in order to help you protect your children.

If you and your ex-spouse have disagreements about parenting arrangements or you anticipate that you may have disagreements in the future, you may want to consider entering into parenting orders, so that you can have the certainty of having your parenting arrangements recorded in a legally-binding document.

If you and your ex-spouse already have parenting orders in place, but they just aren’t working, or your ex-spouse has been breaching them, we can advise you on your rights in seeking new orders or enforcing the current orders.

Whatever concerns you have about parenting arrangements and your children, we are here to help you through the process.