Settlement out of Court

Last week, I attended a presentation on consent orders in the Family Court.The presentation was given to the Family Law Practitioners' association by Registrar Teresa Kane of the Family Court.

Where parties in dispute reach an agreement out of court, they can file consent orders in the court registry.This enables formal orders to be made by the court without the need for the parties to be present.Settlement in this manner involves substantial savings to the parties not only in terms of legal costs, but the stress and distress that inevitably accompanies contested proceedings in the court.

The filing of consent orders means that parties have been able to reach agreement out of court,or without the need for a fully contested hearing.It is not unusual for the costs of a fully contested hearing including the preparation for same to cost upwards of $40,000 or more and these costs are better spent by the parties elsewhere, including on their children.

For consent orders to be made in this manner it is only necessary for two forms to be lodged, those being an Application for Consent Orders and a formal minute or draft of the order sought.The Application requires information which the court requires to determine whether the proposed orders are appropriate and in the case of property orders, whether the settlement reached is "just and equitable".It is essential that all relevant information be provided and be accurate to prevent an application being made at a later stage to set the orders aside.

One of the interesting details noted by Registrar Kane in her very informative presentation was that Australia wide there were  approximately 10,000 orders made by consent, in the above manner, by the Family Court over the past year and of that total number, the Brisbane Registry accounted for approximately one third.In other words there appears to be a higher settlement rate in the Brisbane registry than in other parts of the Commonwealth.

There could be any number of reasons why Brisbane and indeed Queensland has a higher strike rate in terms of settlement than other parts of Australia.

One possible reason is that Mediation has taken a much greater hold in the Sunshine state than other parts of Australia and this is undoubtedly contributing to the higher settlement rate.The role of the legal profession in Queensland and attitudes to settlement are also no doubt factors.

Regardless of the reasons, it is no doubt a worthwhile outcome and in the interests of parties to have such a high proportion of consensual settlements.It is to be hoped that the trend continues.