Right Contract. Wrong Parties.

When a relationship breaks down many challenges occur. Immediate arrangements will often need to be made to ensure safety of former partners and their children. Parents will need to focus on what is in the best interests of their children and discuss and sort what the children will do and with whom they will live and spend time. In addition, the former partners will need to sort finances (e.g. household bills, credit cards, mortgage repayments, loans) in the short term and for the longer term, discuss and try to reach an agreement about property division and possibly spouse maintenance. In many cases, people are able to focus on going forward and negotiate agreement about parenting and/or property division. These sorts of negotiations can vary from being straight forward to being very complex. The negotiations about financial issues can involve third parties such lawyers and accountants. In these negotiations often the people involved will use tools such as spread sheets to list their assets and liabilities and put forward proposals as to how their asset pool may be divided. Over time and in some cases, the people involved may agree about some or all financial issues. However, a spreadsheet is not a legal document and cannot be relied on as the formal legal agreement between parties. In addition, the spreadsheet will not cover all of what is required to carry out the obligations of the agreement. Further, the agreement may not be practical and realistic in all the circumstances. We follow the family law courts case management key principles and so we strongly encourage people to reach agreement about all issues after relationship breakdown as doing so has many benefits for people involved and their family. All people who separate need to be aware that they should formalise their family law agreement. A handshake is not enough. The reasons why the agreement should be formalised include:

• to ensure that the agreement is properly recorded so that it compels the person to do everything required to carry out what was agreed
• to check that all of the issues are dealt with and finalised
• to take advantage of the stamp duty relief which may be allowed on certain transfers
• so the agreement can be enforced if one partner does not do what they agreed to do for any reason, and
• so that a partner cannot in the future seeking a greater share of the financial division above what was agreed to in the informal property settlement.

There are different ways to formalise the family law agreement reached at the end of a relationship and the method used depends on the what the agreement is about. The agreement may be about any or all of these issues: property settlement, spouse maintenance, child support and parenting. There are various options to formalise an agreement about parenting issues and children's arrangements. Those options include a Parenting Plan or Consent Orders. If the case involves child support then a child support agreement also may be appropriate. And there are also various options to formalise an agreement about financial issues and property division. Those options include Consent Orders or a Financial Agreement. Each of the options has various advantages and disadvantages. If you are working towards reaching agreement about your children and/or financial matters that is an excellent step forward to help you and your family get on with your new life sooner. However, we recommend that you do seek legal advice as soon as possible as to what you need to address in your negotiations and how to formalise your agreement. Our experienced family lawyers can give you detailed advice about the law, the procedures and the options for you, your family and your case. We can also draft the legal documents required to formalise your agreement. Finally, as family lawyers we are committed to best practice principles and so we support our clients by working in a collaborative and conciliatory way to reach agreement with their former partner. Please contact our lead family law partner, Kathryn Kearley, for further information. Kathryn is an accredited specialist in family law with many years of experience and she can help you negotiate and record a practical and realistic agreement with your former partner. Kathryn Kearley Email: [email protected] Telephone: +61 2 9804 5700