Family Dispute Resolution
Noosa

If you are looking to resolve some or all of the disagreements arising from your divorce, you can participate in a process in which an independent Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner, trained to assist you to resolve your dispute, can help you to come to an agreement. However, Family Dispute Resolution Practitioners cannot give legal advice or impose a decision.

You must make a genuine effort to resolve any dispute about matters that may be dealt with by a Court Order under Part VII of the Family Law Act 1975 before you file a parenting application.

You can attend a Family Relationship Centre for information, individual sessions and referral, without any cost to you. Joint dispute resolution sessions are available so that you can attempt to resolve your property and parenting matters free, for one hour per couple, or for a charge in accordance with a fee policy based on your income(s). You can click this link to find out more: https://www.familyrelationships.gov.au/find-local-help.

The Court offers FDR, with a judicial registrar. When you reach an agreement at Court-based FDR, your arrangements can be made into binding court orders. If you reach an agreement outside of Court, your agreement is not automatically binding and your Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner must explain this to you.

To resolve your disagreements about parenting or property matters, you can participate in mediation which is a dispute resolution process, assisted by an independent third party to assist you to resolve the issues in dispute.

Mediation can occur before court proceedings have started, or after proceedings have commenced. Agreements about arrangements for your child or children, which are reached during Mediation can be formalised either in a parenting plan, or, if your circumstances mean that you prefer to be able to enforce the agreement you have made, then you a court can make the orders, which are known as Orders by Consent, or Consent Orders.

There are child inclusive mediation processes. You can find out specific details by asking our expert Anumis legal advisors or by talking to mediators, child experts, family dispute resolution practitioners or Family Relationship Centres.

If, on separation or divorce, your financial arrangements are in dispute, an independent Conciliator, will help you and the other party(ies) to settle your financial disagreements to give you finality.

Within the Court, Conciliation Conferences are conducted by a judicial registrar who will consider your situation from both sides and assist you to find options for settling your disagreement without having to take any further legal action. A judicial registrar, cannot give you legal advice and so it is very important for you to talk to our Anumis Legal experts for advice. The judicial registrar can formalise your agreement into binding Consent Orders.

You will need to gather all the information you need for a Conciliation Conference, before a judicial registrar will make an order of a Conciliation Conference. Again, you can ask our Anumis Legal experts for advice on the information you will need to produce, in your specific circumstances.

The Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia produce a helpful factsheet titled “Conciliation Conference”.

If you have a financial dispute, you can participate in a process with an independent arbitrator. During Arbitration, parties present arguments and evidence to the independent arbitrator, who makes a decision. The arbitrator is appointed by the parties and, with their agreement, the court can make an order referring parties to arbitration. Parties can also participate in private arbitration.