Binding Financial Agreements and Consent Orders

Court proceedings are expensive not only in financial terms but also emotionally and socially.

Despite the Family Court of Australia and the Federal Circuit Court endeavouring to put in place procedures for people in dispute to resolve their issues without the necessity of going to Court a large proportion of disputes are in fact dealt with by the Family Court and Federal Circuit Court.

The proceedings are expensive and often require valuations of items of property and, particularly when there is a business involved, expensive valuation fees from accountants.

Taxation specialists are also often required to determine what the likely tax implication will be on the disposal of certain assets.

We encourage our clients and provide advice to them to enable them to try to negotiate an out of the settlement.

Once agreement has been reached then the terms of that agreement can be embodied in a Binding Financial Agreement or by way of Consent Orders obtained from the Family Court of Australia.

Consent Orders can also be filed once proceedings have commenced with the Federal Circuit Court of Australia.

Agreement can be reached either by negotiation between ourselves and the solicitors representing the other party or by arranging alternative dispute resolution with the appointment of an experienced qualified chairperson to engage in a round table conference to determine whether agreement can be reached.

Having an unbiased third party involved can often smooth out areas of discontent which are blocking the striking of a binding Agreement which is satisfactory to both of the parties.