Nervous about family court- advice needed - Australia

r_c29 · 2023-10-16T18:48:19+00:00

Good luck man

hendrixski · 2023-10-16T20:00:11+00:00

She does everything possible to demonise me to the kids

This is called alienation. It is a form of child abuse. Document every instance where you hear her saying bad things or where the kids tell what bad things she said. Bring it to a judge. Your child should not be with a child abuser.

What do I mean by documentation? I mean on paper with a timestamp and with attribution that it is you who wrote it. For example in a journal where it would be obvious if pages were torn our. Another example is an "evidentiary affidavit" which is basically you go to a notary and have them timestamp your statement. Etc. Even if you take a video you still need to write down on paper with a timestamp that it was you who took the video, who was in the video, and when it was taken. Courts love paper. Always have a papertrail.

while Family Law Act says kids deserve equal time with mum and dad, I'm told by everyone they still favour the mum.

Lots of places TALK about equal access to both parents. Exceedingly few places actually require judges to start with equal access to both parents. I don't know about Australia but in the US the argument usually is "we must preserve the status quo... and the status quo is that the child spent more time with the mother".

Any advice about appearing in family court for the first time and as a dad,

Understand that if you do not get 50% custody, it is not your fault. It is the fault of a biased system. Come to terms with the fact that you are going to a place where you will be discriminated against. Where instead of looking for every reason to give you 50% they will instead be looking for every reason NOT to. It will be helpful to see a psychologist.

shit-zen-giggles · 2023-10-16T19:04:39+00:00

Hi,

the following groups / orgs / personsons might be able to give more substancial advise or even help hands on:

https://menslegalservice.org.au/

https://australianmensrights.com/

https://www.bettinaarndt.com.au/

https://www.mothersofsons.info/

I suggest you contact all of them and stick with the ones that fit you best (copy/pasting you text above should be fine).

StripedFalafel · 2023-10-16T22:44:57+00:00

while Family Law Act says kids deserve equal time with mum and dad, I'm told by everyone they still favour the mum.

The Act only says judges need to consider equal time as a possibility & there are exceptions to that. You are right about their bias though.

PS: Labor is about to change the Act so judges don't even need to consider the possibility of equal time. If you want to know more, Bettina Arndt has written about it Once & Twice

Sam__Toucan · 2023-10-17T11:48:55+00:00

I've been through a similar experience in the UK family court.

There's too much to say for reddit, key advice from me would be to mask your anger and take a long term view. Lose your temper once and you're a potentially dangerous man, and this will not be forgotten.

The system is not fair and you just have to accept that's how it is and make the best of it.

Also while 50/50 access is ideal, you can still build a great relationship with your kids without that. I got about the same access as you have now, and when my daughter turned 10 she said she wants to live with me instead of her mother! Kids understand more than you think and can often see through alienation, even though they are afraid to speak up about it.

Anonymous_Avocado69 · 2023-10-17T16:52:04+00:00

Stop giving a fuck, fuck those kids, it’s not the man’s responsibility to deal with all this. She wants bastards? Give her bastards

Equivalent-Target724 · 2023-10-21T01:33:38+00:00

Are you paying support or alimony?

Title	Nervous about family court- advice needed - Australia
Author	Top_Interaction8871
Upvotes	22
Comments	10
Date	October 16, 2023 6:21 PM UTC (2 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/179cs3c/nervous_about_family_court_advice_needed_australia/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/nervous-about-family-court-advice-needed-australia.1235341 https://theredarchive.com/post/1235341

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