The law seeks to ensure any financial settlement between the parties is fair, and no two cases are the same. Each party’s contributions and needs are considered, regardless of whose name the assets and liabilities are under. In most cases, the parties must first attempt to reach an agreement before proceeding to Court.

By engaging Waters Lawyers to assist with this, we are able to advocate on your behalf and predict what a Court is likely to consider fair based on our vast experience.

Once the application is filed, anyone other than you must personally hand the court documents to your spouse 28 days before the divorce hearing. If they refuse to accept the documentation, they can be placed on the ground in their presence. When the divorce application is approved, the Court will order the termination of your marriage to be effective after a further one month and one day.

Absolutely. Your contributions will be seen to be just as valuable as the contributions of a person who goes out to work each day.

Generally, debt accrued during a relationship is shared. However, the court has the discretion to look at individual debts and decide it’s unfair for it to be shared. For example, if your ex-spouse has acted negligently, not paid tax for many years or accumulated gambling debts, the court can hold your former partner solely liable.

A business is considered a type of property in a family law settlement, and therefore it’ll be given a value and form part of your asset pool.

Cryptocurrency is an asset like any other in a property settlement matter. Although digital assets can be difficult to trace, the consequences of not disclosing them (or other wealth for that matter) far outweigh any benefit you might foresee. Digital assets also fluctuate, often at a moment’s notice, and the court can only divide the assets in existence at the time of the property settlement.

If you’ve been contributing to the relationship in different ways to your partner, such as by raising your children, the law will treat the superannuation like any other asset in the pool, no matter who’s name it is attributed to.

Whether it be in the form of money, property or something else, an inheritance is an asset we’re commonly asked about. Although every case is different, there are five key questions considered by the court when deciding the outcome. Read more about them in our blog here.

Taking your dispute to court means allowing the Judge to divide all of your respective assets, liabilities and financial resources in a fair way according to the law. This will be based on each party’s financial and non-financial contributions during their relationship and their needs beyond it, such as income, health and caregiving responsibilities.

The costs of engaging a lawyer vary and, at times, may exceed the value for the assets in question, especially if a property isn’t involved. At Waters Lawyers, we pride ourselves on being transparent with our prices. Sometimes that means not taking on a matter as it wouldn’t be financially beneficial for you and against our morals to do so. We rarely advise getting involved in asset division where no property or large assets are involved.