The Family Court underwent some significant changes in 2014, particularly in the area of parenting and guardianship disputes. As a general rule, if there are no safety issues affecting the child or children most parenting and guardianship disputes are now required to be mediated before recourse ...READ MORE >>

For many, Trusts are a great mystery. Trusts are not legal persons, but rather they are legal relationships between people and certain property. The subject matter of a Trust is property or assets. As well as that every Trust has at least one beneficiary and one trustee (usually two or three). A ...READ MORE >>

When relationships break up, former spouses or de facto partners will often find themselves at war over who gets to keep the family home and business, the much-loved pet, the car, and of course shares or cash assets. The Property (Relationships) Act 1976 (“the Act”) contains rules as to how ...READ MORE >>

Following up on the earlier articles on the Family Court Reforms as part of its plan to reform Family Court procedure, the National Government is proposing to remove interim Parenting Orders under the Care of Children Act 2004. This would mean that all Parenting Orders made under that Act are final ...READ MORE >>

In previous articles we discussed the Government’s plans to radically change the Family Court process by reducing the role lawyers play. In this article we continue that theme to discuss the effect of these changes on how children are represented in the Family Court. Driven by a desire to cut ...READ MORE >>

In its efforts to balance the books, the present Government is seeking to downsize the role that lawyers currently play in Family Court processes. But at what cost? Every year, some 58,000 New Zealand families are involved in Family Court proceedings. This equates to approximately nine percent of ...READ MORE >>