Family Law Matters

We understand the complexities of families and family relationships and the stress involved in relationship breakdowns.

We strive to provide practical advice and strong advocacy for our client’s rights.

We provide a full service from advising, negotiating settlement, drafting orders, agreements, Court proceedings (where required), transferring of assets and putting orders or agreements into effect.

We can assist with the following:

Property settlement

Binding Financial Agreements

Consent Orders

Child support

Binding Child Support Agreements

Divorce

We can assist with the following:

Property settlement

Binding Financial Agreements

Consent Orders

Child support

Binding Child Support Agreements

Divorce

Picking Percentages

Family Law & Relationship Property

The Australian Courts have extensive powers to redistribute relationship property between the two partners. Most disputes never reach a final hearing, settling well before.

The critical task in such disputes is to determine what property there is (the ‘property pool’), its reasonable value, and what percentage each partner will receive. 

In this process, clients frequently focus on excluding assets from the property pool. Otherwise they focus on narratives that disentitle or entitle one or the other to specific assets in the pool.

All relationship assets (beneficially owned) go in the pool and all must be given a market value. Then a percentage split must be agreed, or determined by the Court.

There are various rules of thumb when picking percentages. A short relationship with no children and where one partner contributed all the assets will usually result in the parties mostly taking out (in assets) what they put in. A long relationship with children, where one party made career sacrifices, will often result in a fairly disproportionate entitlement to the sacrificing partner. 

Simpson Quinn can assist in all family law disputes, extending to custody over children. We can also advise you as to the terms of a Binding Financial Agreement (‘pre-nup’) should either party wish to define the extent of any division prior to separation.