Family Court

Family Law Mediation

You must make sure you make a genuine effort to resolve your child custody dispute through counseling or family law mediation.

All child custody decisions are focused on ensuring the best interests of the child are made.

Generally speaking, it’s often in the child’s best interests to have a loving relationship with both parents, but arranging such relationships can be the main challenge in resolving a child custody dispute. Sometimes the parents can benefit from having a child dispute conference, which is an independent report facilitated by the court..

We encourage parents to go to mediation, however, there are circumstances when a court will take the view that mediation is not required before starting proceedings; this is in a minority of cases and will usually only where there is a history of physical, sexual or psychological abuse or if there is an urgent need for court orders.

The decisions you make now in relation to your child custody arrangement will affect your child’s development and potentially your future relationship with them.

Each decision should be made carefully with the help of professionals who know and understand the consequences of every action.

Filing A Response to an Initiating Application Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia

It can be quite an uncomfortable feeling when you receive court forms telling you that you need to go to court on a particular date to appear in front of a judge.

You should read through the Initiating Application and Affidavit carefully, then you will need to file the following:

Response to Initiating Application – You use this form because you disagree with the orders sought by your ex-partner and you want the court to make different orders or no orders at all.

Affidavit – This is a supporting statement that details your version of events and is in line with your Response. It should also respond to the affidavit that was filed with the initiating application.

Notice of Child Abuse, Family Violence or Risk of Family Violence – this needs to be filed only if you are seeking parenting orders. It is to put the court on notice that there may be a risk to the children involved in the court proceedings.

Financial Statement – If you are going to court for a financial matter, you will need to file this document. You will need to fill in information about your current financial situation.