People consult family court when they are unable to resolve their family issues at home. While many of these cases have genuine grounds for unsolvable disagreements, most people who do not have enough emotional intelligence and strength to resolve their matters on their own tend to prefer family courts over other platforms.
The proceedings which take place inside family courts require immense emotional strength but the lack of it is exactly why most people go to family court in the first place, and that is what creates what we call a paradox. Family courts help in resolving matters which are complicated because of irrational behaviors of family members and when they are unable to make sound judgments.
According to family law experts, people spend a lot of money just to resolve those matters which do not have any legal basis. Most of the time the underlying issue has purely emotional grounds which cannot be resolved by law. About a year ago, the waiting time for a trial was 17 months in the family court, and that too was after a person got into the queue.
This is probably why the ratio of family court divorces is less than what it used to be before, but even now there are many couples who want to end their relationship in the courtroom.
The lawyer fees and other related expenses are not cheap either. For example, the cost of hiring one reputed barrister of family law in Sydney is around $10,000 on a per day basis, and the retainer fee of lawyers is twice that amount.
Yet, many people are using family courts of course if they have the financial means to go through with it.
A huge proportion of lawyers representing their clients before the judge are not trained enough. They complicate the matter which is already hard to understand because of its inseparable emotional side.
This problem is so severe that the Australian Attorney-General Mr. Christian Porter had to take notice and merge the Federal Circuit Court system and the Family Court system, although this decision may not go through since Senate is not in its favor.
Furthermore, leading a trial in Family Court is not every lawyer’s forte, which makes it even more difficult to find the right person to fight your case.
Financially, it will cost around $80,000 for a basic case. As the complexity and number of claims increase, these costs increase. For example, where a business needs to be split after separation and it is not simple, the total cost of divorce can increase up to $200,000.
While a 50-50 partition of assets is expected between both parties, it is worth noting that judges have a freedom to tilt the same by about 10 percent.
Families should consider this before going to the court and incurring hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawyer’s fees, especially because these costs are not allowed to be deductible expenses in your tax return.
According to one reputed lawyer, she always hires a counselor with a case because anything emotional can be discussed and dealt with the counselor so that she can focus on the legal part.
To make everything black and white, both parties have to hand over sensitive information and aspects of their personality for fair judgment of the case by professionals.
For example, forensic accountants thoroughly study every aspect of the business to ensure fair treatment of the asset. Parenting skills are also judged carefully in cases where children are involved.
According to reports, one mother, who was a nurse by profession, accused her ex-husband of forcing himself on her 3-year old son just to make a strong case against him.
Judge Catherine Carew was assigned this case and of course, the father, a tradesman by profession, had to immediately stop any kind of contact with the child because authorities obviously consider the child’s safety with utmost importance.
The case went on to trial and Judge Carew ordered in the favor of the father. A lot of discussion was made during the trial around the fact that the child woke up saying A Monster immediately after saying Dad.
The mother tried to convince the whole room that the child called out his father a monster in the middle of the night however, at the end, facts won. Such cases must be taken to court to separate truth from falsehood, and if you are dealing with such a difficult case, then perhaps there is no other way to resolve the issue than to approach a family court.
