Knowledge

Spousal maintenance is ongoing financial support paid by a party of a marriage to their former partner in circumstances where the former partner is unable to support themselves. In de facto relationships, this is called de facto partner maintenance. For the purposes of this article, both types of maintenance will be referred to as ‘spousal maintenance’.

It is not uncommon in family law proceedings for a party to post on social media about their separation. It is so common in fact, that many may think that venting on social media, or indeed any media available to the public, is acceptable. This could not be further from the truth.

For the first time in over 40 years an inquiry has been made into the family court system. The Family Court system has been criticised as ‘painstakingly slow’ and ‘prohibitively expensive’ time and time again. To remedy this, the government has proposed a merger between the Family Court of Australia (FCoA) and the Federal Circuit Court of Australia (FCC) without waiting for the release of the Australian Law Reform Commission’s final report, which is scheduled for 31 March 2019.