What our clients say about us: "In late 2008, I had a matter concluded by your firm. I am writing to commend Kerry White who managed my case...MORE
noscript tags. Include a link to bypass the detection if you wish. Living With Responsibility
Adam Bak, solicitor at Farrar Gesini & Dunn discuss concepts in the law regarding children
In 2006, the Federal Government changed the Family Law Act to introduce a change in the way children’s cases were determined. The changes move away from traditional concepts of “custody” and “access” towards a more modern and co-operative system of “live with”, “spend time with”, “communicate with”, and importantly, “parental responsibility”. The new law has been argued in the Full Court of the Family Court many times and a clearer understanding of what the various terms mean has now been established.
The underlying principle of the parenting provisions in the Act remains that the Court must do what is in the best interests of the child. There are a number of factors the Court must take into account, most notably, the benefit to the child of having a meaningful relationship with both parents, and the need to protect the child from harm, abuse, neglect and violence.
Under Australian law, there are no presumptions about how much time a child should spend with each parent. There are, however, a number of considerations that the Court must take into account. While many cases still result in child living with each parent equally, such as a week-about arrangement, the majority of cases do not...MORE
Consensus: a new way to resolve family law disputes
Jim Dunn - Managing Director
Farrar Gesini & Dunn are setting up a new legal practice called Consensus Family Lawyers.
We have bought a team of people together at Consensus Family Lawyers who will use mediation, collaboration, facilitation and arbitration as the primary way to reach an outcome.
The establishment of Consensus is in response to our perception that there are at least two legitimate ways to resolve disputes which arise as a result of a couple separating and that conventional lawyers only address one of those ways.
The first is the traditional way which Farrar Gesini & Dunn will continue to practice.This involves identifying what problems ...MORE
Separating de facto couples
Farrar Gesini & Dunn's Senior Consultant, Chris Crowley, speaks to Damien Carrick of the ABC Law Report about the legislation governing separating de facto couples.
Chris Crowley is a senior consultant with Canberra Family Law firm, Farrar, Gesini and Dunn. Chris says the current mish-mash of laws means that bickering couples who live in border regions will often argue over which law applies.
Another problem with the current schemes is that superannuation is not included.
Chris Crowley: There was a pivotal case in the ACT in 1998 where one party was about close to 60, who was finishing her working life, had very little if any, superannuation. The other partner to the relationship, he had just acquired a PhD. He had a very significant income capacity and he had significant accumulated benefits under a generous Commonwealth superannuation scheme. Now the court in that particular case couldn't make any order giving to her a proportion or a percentage of his superannuation. What they had to do was to take it into account in a general sense, and everybody knows that that really doesn't do ...MORE
For more articles click here