What you must do before going to the Family Court of WA for parenting orders or property settlement.

The Family Court of Western Australia has pre-action procedures that you must follow before you can start your application for parenting orders or property settlement.

If you want the Family Court to decide who will take responsibility for parenting children or how your property will be divided between you and your ex after your separation and/or divorce, there are some steps you need to take before you go to court.

These procedures are in place to make sure that you and your ex fully understand what the problems are in your dispute, and to give you and your ex a chance to save time and legal costs by resolving them yourselves.

Dispute Resolution

Parenting Cases

Both you are your ex must attend Family Dispute Resolution (FDR) with a person who is a registered family dispute resolution practitioner. This is either conciliation, mediation or arbitration – whatever you and your ex think is best for your situation. You can find information about registered practitioners through Family Relationships Online.

Once you have completed Family Dispute Resolution, you and your ex will be given a certificate which allows you to file your case in the Family Court of Western Australia if you have not reached an agreement.

There are some circumstances where you can be exempt from attending Family Dispute Resolution. To apply for an exemption you would need to show that your case falls into one of the accepted categories, which includes where there is child abuse or family violence or there is a risk of child abuse or family violence.

You will not be able to file an application for a parenting order with the Family Court of Western Australia unless you have a certificate from a Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner or you have an Exemption Form.

Financial Cases (Property Settlement and Spousal Maintenance)

You and your ex have to make a genuine effort to resolve your dispute through dispute resolution before the Court will consider your matter. If there is no agreement after attending dispute resolution, you must write a letter to your ex stating what the issues are in your dispute, the orders that you want, and include a genuine offer to settle the matter. Your ex can then reply stating what they see are the issues, the orders they want and a genuine counter-offer. If there is no response or no agreement is reached you can commence filing an application to take your case to the Family Court.

There are some circumstances where the Court will accept that the pre-action procedures are not possible.

You have an Agreement

If you have come to an agreement this can be put into a Parenting Plan (Parenting) or you can complete an application for Consent Orders (Parenting and Property) if you want/need a Court Order.

Your Duty of Disclosure

You and your ex must disclose all information that is relevant to your dispute. This applies to all parenting and financial cases. You can read more information about this here.

There are certain documents that you must give your ex to satisfy your duty of disclosure before you go to court.

Consequences for not following pre-action procedures

The Family Court of Western Australia takes disclosure and dispute resolution very seriously. If you do not comply with the Court requirements the court can order one party to pay some or all of the other party’s costs for their case, or it can change the way your case goes through the Family Court process.

We understand that separating can be confusing and challenging, but these pre-action procedures don’t have to be. Call Wayne Dawkins Lawyers on 9214 3887 to see what we can do to help.