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calendar    Aug 26, 2020

What time limits are there in Family Law?

When dealing with an already difficult family breakdown, it’s important that you don’t take too long to begin any required legal proceedings. If you wait too long after a relationship breakdown, the court might refuse to hear your matter. This article will explain the relevant time limits you face when approaching the Family Court of Australia.

When dealing with an already difficult family breakdown, it’s important that you don’t take too long to begin any required legal proceedings. If you wait too long after a relationship breakdown, the court might refuse to hear your matter. This article will explain the relevant time limits you face when approaching the Family Court of Australia.

Parenting

When deciding parenting arrangements, the goal of the Family Court is to ensure the best interests of the child are met. Because of this, there is no time limit imposed on legal discussion of parenting matters. The court will consider matters involving children for as long as they are still children, regardless of how long ago the parent’s relationship ended.

Property

Unlike its approach to parenting, the court imposes strict limitations on property agreements. When dividing property, the relevant time limits change based on whether the relationship was de facto or whether it was a marriage.

If there was a marriage breakdown a time limitation only begins after you get divorced. You will have only 12 months from the date of the divorce order to initiate property proceedings. If the relationship is de facto, you will have 24 months to begin proceedings. The beginning of the 24-month window begins on the date of separation. Unfortunately, the date of separation can be difficult to determine as you and your former partner might disagree on when you stopped living together as a couple. To determine separation, the court could consider factors such as the following:

  • Whether the couple is sharing a bedroom
  • Whether there are shared finances
  • Whether they have told family or friends of the separation

Often there are other complications around separation, such as temporary reconciliation, that can make it even more difficult to determine a precise date of separation. Because of these difficulties, it is important that you start the legal process of dividing property as soon as possible so that you don’t miss out on achieving a fair result.

If you do miss the time limit, there is still hope! In some special cases, the court will still hear your matter, but this is rare and should only be treated as a last resort.

If you have further questions, please contact us at frank@franklaw.com.au

This is not legal advice. 

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

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