Kiwilaw* - 'yield to principle, not to pressure'
Probate, wills, estate administration, reseal grants, transmission to executors
by Cheryl on
It’s a crisis! There are not enough judges! Judge time is having to be moved from District Court criminal cases to Family Court cases! Family Court registry staff are overloaded!
All of this is true. [Read more…] about Family Court crisis creates more incentive to use FDR and mediation – to ‘make peace, not war’
by Cheryl on
Dad is in prison. Mum wants a parenting order for day-to-day care of the children.
Before she can apply to the Family Court, Mum is required to attend a parenting-information programme (‘Parenting Through Separation’).
She is also required to use Family Dispute Resolution (FDR), to try to reach agreement with Dad without Family Court proceedings. [Read more…] about Parents in prison can still use FDR (Family Dispute Resolution)
by Cheryl on
When Oranga Tamariki social workers and police uplift children without notice, often using deception to gain access to the children, parents and families are justifiably enraged, shocked, and indeed beside themselves. Families’ and parents’ reaction may then make things worse and be used against them in subsequent court proceedings.
All of that is bad enough.
What makes everything worse is confusion about the relevant law. [Read more…] about ‘Care and protection’ – confusion about without-notice uplifts, family group conferences, and s67 ‘declarations’
by Cheryl on
New Zealand First’s election platform included a policy of making Family Court counselling more effective.
We hope that the new government will encourage more creative use of the existing system, before making changes that may prove unnecessarily disruptive.
The collaborative approach outlined below is one such creative innovation, achieved within the existing system.
[Read more…] about Creative use of s46G counselling orders – with one psychologist per party, using peace-making therapeutic skills in a collaborative approachby Cheryl on
A prison inmate has the same legal status as any other parent/guardian.
So a serving prisoner may apply for parenting orders or orders involving guardianship disputes. A prisoner may also defend applications for such orders. [Read more…] about Prisoners don’t cease to be parents
by Cheryl on
Want to meddle with the Official Forms? Or use discretion to make two parenting orders instead of one? Or set clear contact or changeover times in Family Court orders? Help is at hand. You need not wander, lonely as a dog, over a riverbed, chasing a rainbow…
Introducing…not Superman, but the Interpretation Act 1999 (drum roll, please) [Read more…] about Bemused family lawyer? Let’s start at the beginning… with the Interpretation Act 1999
