It is often a struggle to locate the best lawyers to represent you in family law proceedings.
In Australia a lawyer may practice in family law without being highly specialised. It is therefore important to differentiate when choosing the best representation:
1. BEST FAMILY LAWYERS BY RAFTON FAMILY LAWYERS AT PENRITH AND PARRAMATTA OFFICES
When choosing a family lawyer for your divorce, property settlement or contact issue if you do not choose the right representation this can often cost you more in the long run. Although a highly experienced and skilled lawyer may charge a higher hourly rate than a general practice lawyer, your overall costs can be a lot higher if your lawyer does not understand the intricacies of this area and highly specialises in this area as they are not as efficient in dealing with your matter and may, in some cases, need to consult other experts at additional cost to you.
2. BECOMING AN ACCREDITED FAMILY LAW SPECIALIST
Rafton Family Lawyers have accredited family law specialists. This means that they are recognised by the Law Society of NSW as specialists in family law and we have specialists at all of our offices both in the Penrith, Richmond and Parramatta areas.
To become an accredited family law specialist, lawyers must generally have a minimum of 5 years experience in law and at least 3 years in the specific family law area with at least 25% of the practice of family law in the preceding period. The Law Society has released its statistics indicating that of all the lawyers who sit the accredited specialisation examination only approximately 30% pass as there is a higher than 70% failure rate.
Our team of accredited family law specialists have a combined experience of over 70 years in practice and we also have a special counsel at our practice who has been recognised by Doyle’s Guide as a leader in the area of mediation.
3. WHAT DOES ACCREDITED SPECIALISATION MEAN
3.1 As indicated above, an accredited specialist means that further training has been undertaken after completion of a law degree by the Law Society of NSW to recognise additional training and experience in family law.
3.2 HOW WILL I KNOW IF MY LAWYER IS AN ACCREDITED SPECIALIST
At Rafton Family Lawyers you will see that we display the specialised symbol from the Law Society as accredited specialists in this area. If you are browsing a website or speaking to a lawyer who is a generalist lawyer, they may use the wording “specialising” but they are not allowed to use the wording “accredited specialist in family law” as it is a breach of the Law Society Rules to hold out to be a specialist in an area if in fact you are not.
3.3 CAN I ASK MY LAWYER IF THEY ARE AN ACCREDITED SPECIALIST?
The answer is yes. You are able to search the Law Society website date base under the individual name of your lawyer and it will indicate if they are an accredited specialist and what specialisation they hold.
RAFTON FAMILY LAWYERS HAVE DUAL ACCREDITED SPECIALISTS. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Kate Rafton, our principle and practice manager across our offices at Parramatta, Richmond, Penrith and Sydney is a dual accredited specialist being that she has completed qualifications in both family law as a specialist and in the specialised area of children’s law. This means that she has undertaken additional training in both of these areas which enables her to guide her clients in this highly specialised arena.
Contact our specialised team now for specialist family law, divorce, children’s contact issues and our team are able to help.
You can make a booking online or via our website.