 RMB's Family Law team Adam Barlow, Hayley Kelloway and Claire Osborne.
Family Law and Migration Law
RMB Lawyers' Family Law Division lawyers can see you in our offices at Wollongong, Nowra, Kiama and Dapto.
Adam Barlow heads the Family Law Division with Hayley Kelloway and Claire Osborne, with the highly experienced Mark Saunders providing a mentoring role.
The RMB Family Law team understand that most people going through marital separation have no previous experience of the law and courts. This can make a difficult and emotional time even more daunting.
Our staff understand the high level of emotion involved, and the potential for imbalances of power and knowledge between spouses in aspects such as financial affairs.
Our staff take a caring approach, with a focus on achieving the best possible outcomes through amicable settlements. We make every effort to ensure the parties involved keep communication lines open, especially where children are involved.
It is important to realise that Family Court Orders are not just for couples with high levels of wealth. In fact, the protection provided is just as relevant for families with minimal assets or high levels of debt. The Family Court Orders will provide protection for the future as well as finalising the financial relationship between the parties.
Collaborative Family Law
A number of our staff are trained in Collaborative Law, a process whereby both parties and their solicitors agree to make every effort to settle the matter without going to court. In fact, if a settlement can't be reached, both parties' solicitors agree not to act in the Court proceedings.
Property settlements
Early advice is most effective in achieving positive outcomes in property settlements.
Time limits for property settlement applications only apply if a divorce has been finalised, in which applications must be made within 12 months of the divorce.
Family Law and Business
An additional stress occurs when couples are involved in a business. The staff at RMB Family Law are well aware that marriage breakdown often imposes economic pressure and other difficulties on such businesses. We encourage accountants and/or financial advisers to be involved in the early advising process, so that issues such as liquidity and cash flow can be addressed before they become major problems.
De Facto Relationships
De Facto relationships are not defined by time. Rather, they are defined as a relationship between two parties which has resulted in financial affairs becoming intertwined. De facto partners have similar rights to spouses with both financial and non-financial contributions taken into account. Again, it is essential that good quality advice is provided as soon as possible to ensure that the parties can deal with the matter in an amicable setting.
Child Custody Issues
When a marriage breakdown involves children, especially of a young age, both parties often feel that the stakes have been lifted. It is important that both parties put the children's needs at the forefront of all considerations. This includes the need to ensure that children have the opportunity to continue to have meaningful relationships with both parents (provided that continuing contact is in the best interests of the child).
Recent changes in the Family Law legislation favour shared parental responsibility and have established and confirmed equal status of rights between both parents.
The Family Court actively encourages mediation prior to custody applications. RMB Family Lawyer Hayley Kelloway is a registered Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner, and is well versed in handling this emotional area of Family law. RMB also works closely with the Family Relationship Centre and other such mediation services to work towards amicable outcomes.
RMB is also able to provide assistance in preparing and completing Parenting Plans.
Where the situation cannot be resolved, RMB is willing and able to fight for your rights including urgent court applications.
Divorce
A divorce is simply the severing of the marriage contract and is separate from a property settlement.
RMB offers a fixed fee of $500 plus GST for acting on your behalf in a divorce. A filing fee of $405 also applies. Where an Application is made on behalf of one spouse only there is also a service fee of between $60 and $100. Court attendance is not always required especially in the cases of joint applications or applications where there are no children under 18 years of age.
It is important to note that you cannot apply for a divorce until you have been separated for a minimum of 12 months.
Pre-nuptial, Co-Habitation and Binding Financial Agreements
RMB Family Law also offers fixed fee services for the preparation of Binding Financial Agreements (commonly referred to as "Pre-Nuptial Agreements" or "Pre-Nups") and Co-Habitation Agreements (commonly referred to as "De Facto Pre-Nups"). Although not suitable in every circumstance, our staff can advise whether such agreements would suit your circumstances.
Migration Law
Hayley Kelloway handles Migration Law issues at RMB. She is a registered Migration Agent and a member of the Migration Institute of Australia. Hayley can assist with spousal visa, prospective marriage visa and interdependency visa applications.
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