Further changes the Family Law Act have the final stamp of approval

Further to our recent article, Royal Assent has been given to the latest changes to the Family Law Act.

The first group of amendments will take effect from 10 June 2025 and the important changes relate to:

• The Act has defined economic abuse and financial abuse;
• The Act included the care and housing needs of children as a relevant consideration for property matters;
• The power to make orders about companion animals
• The relevance of Family Violence as a consideration for financial matters;
• Making reference to wastage issues and liabilities when working out a property division.
• extended the Less Adversarial Trials method (LATs) to property proceedings in certain circumstances.
• requires parties to provide full and frank disclosure of their financial circumstances and disclosure about important matters in their case (This was previously in the Rules but is now in the legislation;
• The Act establishes a regulatory framework for Children’s Contact Services
• Protects confidence in a ‘professional services’ settings to be included or excluded as evidence in case
• Enables rules to facilitate divorces being heard without a Court appearance, regardless of whether there are children under 18 years of age.
• It also made changes to the costs order provisions.

The second group of changes have taken effect immediately and being from 11 December 2024 and they are:

• Made changes in relation to Commonwealth information orders.
• Changes to the Act that deals with superannuation splitting in property orders/ property agreements.

The changes are welcomed by the legal profession and are designed to ensure that family violence is recognised formally in property divisions and to make the process simpler and easier to understand. For more information about the changes please click here to view to our previous article Changes To The Family Law Act

Article by Nicole Quirk
Image created in Canva