Rafton Family Lawyers has recently been involved in an application for property settlement that was filed in the Federal Circuit Court at Parramatta.
The team from Raftons were able to assist the client in seeking property settlement in circumstances where the Husband was refusing to negotiate and had remained residing in the home after separation.
After filing the application we sought a referral to Arbitration which the recent amendment to the Family Law Act has now enabled a referral to be made by a Judge in the Federal Circuit Court and this entailed the client obtaining an arbitrational award within three months of filing of our originating application.
The current delays of the matter had remained before the Judge in the Federal Circuit Court at Parramatta are an estimate of eighteen months to two years for a one to two-day Hearing.
Following the arbitration award in which our was successful in achieving an excellent outcome, we were able to then register the arbitration award in the Federal Circuit Court and we had the matter relisted back before the original Judge and made an application for costs against the Husband and his Solicitor. The basis of our application for costs was that we had already made a reasonable settlement offer prior to bringing the matter to Court that the Husband had refused to accept and our client achieved a better outcome at arbitration. We were successful in obtaining an award for costs in relation to the arbitration and consequential Solicitor fees.
Susan was extremely happy with the outcome and also happy with the swift an efficient way in which her property settlement was handled.
Please contact us if you would like to discuss arbitration as our team at Rafton Family Lawyers Parramatta, Richmond, Glenmore and St Clair are very experienced in these matters and have now been successful in several arbitration applications.