Category Archives: In the Courtroom
The Contact / Communication Book
At Lilly Pilly, when communication between parents is difficult, we encourage parents to start communicating with each other through the use of a contact or communication book. Typically the child/ren carry the book in their bag between visits to each parent. It is preferable if it is a medium sized, bound book with numbered pages (pages can tend to go missing). The contact book is about the children with regards to their needs and anything else you think could be relevant....
POP – Parenting Orders Programs
What is a Parenting Orders Program? A Parenting Orders Program is the name of a post separation parenting program under the Family Law Act. It helps separated parents work out arrangements that allow parents and other family members to spend time with the children. Why go to a Parenting Orders Program? Sometimes families who are separated are not able to agree about arrangements for seeing their children and cannot make parenting orders work. Parents may have been to court to...
Parenting Orders – what you need to know
A parenting order is a set of orders made by a court about parenting arrangements for a child. A court can make a parenting order based on an agreement between the parties (consent orders) or after a court hearing or trial. When a parenting order is made, each person affected by the order must follow it. A parenting order may deal with one or more of the following: who the child will live with how much time the child will...
The Twelve Golden Rules of Giving Evidence
As many people who are using he centre are unfortunately involved with various Court systems. I thought I would share a list of rules given to me by a very respected Queens Counsel. 1. Listen to the question. This is the first and most obvious rule. You would be surprised how many witnesses don’t 2. If you don’t hear or understand the question, say so. Don’t guess at what the barrister was asking. Don’t be afraid to say “I am sorry,...
The Conservative Approach
Many times parents are requested to participate in supervised contact with their children because Magistrates have not yet heard proper evidence. Whether it be allegations of Family Violence, Abuse, Alcohol, Magistrates will request a conservative approach until proper evidence of these allegations put forward can be heard. Many times both parents will allege actions that the other party may / may-not have done to try and benefit their case. Litigation, if you choose that path in your situa...