Family Law

Child maintenance

Understand maintenance orders, payment disputes, documents, and help paths.

Parenting plan

Start with care, contact, decision-making, and child-focused planning.

Domestic violence concern

Find protection order terms, urgent pathways, and legal help.

Care and contact

Understand child arrangements, access disputes, and Family Advocate context.

I want to get divorced

Move into divorce law, settlement, maintenance, and parenting resources.

Family Advocate process

Understand Family Advocate involvement and child-focused recommendations.

Services

Common services

Maintenance Matters

Maintenance orders, arrears, payment disputes, and enforcement.

Parenting Plans

Care, contact, decision-making, routines, and child-focused arrangements.

Domestic Violence

Protection orders, breach concerns, urgent safety, and court process.

Care and Contact

Care of a child, contact disputes, and parenting arrangements.

Family Advocate

Family Advocate process and child-focused recommendations.

Divorce Support

Divorce, settlement, maintenance, and parenting pathways.

Divorce And Maintenance ChecklistDivorce And Maintenance Checklist for preparing documents, facts, dates, and questions connected to family law.Divorce ChecklistPreparation checklist for divorce process, settlement, parenting, and maintenance issues.

Overview

Family law overview

What family law covers

Family law covers divorce, maintenance, parenting, care and contact, domestic violence, adoption, guardianship, and child-focused processes.

Common family matters

Common matters include child maintenance, parenting plans, protection orders, care disputes, divorce, and Family Advocate involvement.

When legal help is useful

Legal help is useful where children, safety, maintenance, court papers, urgent protection, or disagreement about parenting are involved.

Resources

Family law resources

Maintenance Documents ChecklistChecklist for income, expenses, child-related costs, payment records, and existing orders.

Parenting Plan Preparation GuideGuide to care, contact, routines, holidays, decision-making, and child-focused arrangements.

Protection Order Preparation PackPreparation pack for incidents, messages, witnesses, safety concerns, and court documents.

Browse resources

Glossary

Family law terms

Browse family law terms

Maintenance Order

A court order that requires a person to pay maintenance for a child, spouse, or another qualifying dependant.

Parenting Plan

A written plan that records care, contact, and parental-responsibility arrangements for a child.

Best interests of the child

A child-focused legal standard requiring decisions about children to prioritise the child's welfare, safety, development, and circumstances.

Care of a child

A parental responsibility and right concerning a child's day-to-day care, living arrangements, supervision, safety, and wellbeing.

Domestic violence

Abusive, threatening, controlling, or harmful conduct within a domestic relationship that may justify protection-order, police, safety, or court steps.