What Do You Need Help With?
- Responsive. You get an instant online quote that covers every application.
- Fast. Our Consent Orders will be prepared in 24Hrs at a fixed fee.
- Reasonably priced. You can obtain a Property Settlement from $2455
- Transparent. Our Consent Orders are all Fixed Fees
- Professional. We are Accredited Specialists in family law (NSW and QLD).
- Easy to deal with. We offer you a fully remote service with Rachel and Brendan.
- Comprehensive. We complete every step of the process – Application for Consent Orders and Minute of Order.
- Respectful of your wishes. There will be no further negotiation between parties – we just draft your agreement with no interference.
- All documents are digitally signed reducing delay.
Fixed Fee, Full-Service Consent Orders from $2970 – Property Settlement
Fixed Fee Parenting Orders – $2420 plus court fees
Kate Austin Family Law will prepare Parenting Orders to make your parenting plans legally binding in just 24 hours. We are Accredited Specialists in Family Law with over 20 years of experience in creating legally binding Consent Orders across Australia. We will follow your instructions to the letter to ensure we document your agreement.
Fixed Fee Property and Children’s Consent Orders – $3740 plus court fees.
What is a Consent Order?
A Consent Order in Family Law is an agreement between two parties in a domestic relationship. The agreement is presented to the Family Court to be formalised without needing the parties to attend the Family Court. The application for Consent Orders can include property settlements and or Parenting agreements.
The Orders include two documents—the Application and the Minute of Order. The application for Consent Orders includes all the personal details of the parties as well as the financial details relating to the proposed property settlement. The “minute of order” details the agreement in written terms or orders.
If the Family Court approves your agreement, they are legally binding.
For a property settlement, the Family Court uses a principle known as ” Just and equitable.” This principle is a test the Family Court registrars apply to ensure that the agreement is fair and consistent with previous Family Court judgements.
Parenting Orders use the test “best interests of the Children”. This test is designed to ensure that children’s needs are more important than the needs of adults.
Your Application for Consent Orders can be lodged without an existing application in the court or can be used to finalise a current matter in the court or vary a matter that has been previously closed.
How Long Do Consent Orders Take?
There are two stages in the Consent Orders process and no rule on how long each takes.
1. Drafting and preparing your Consent Order
Kate Austin Family Law takes 24 hours to draft your Consent Orders, and any changes also take 24 hours.
If you require a superannuation splitting order, the fund is allowed 28 days to respond with approval of your proposed Consent Order.
We retain a list of funds approval times and their direct contacts to speed this step up.
2. The Family Court.
The Family Court’s time to approve a Consent Order depends on several factors, but there is no rule to this outcome.
Consent Orders filed with the Family Court are sent to the national centre and then allocated to various registrars around Australia. The Family Court registry (we think) allocates Consent Orders to even the time frames out.
Timeframes seem faster early in the school terms and longer coming into Christmas.
Children only matters can be faster.
Kate Austin maintains a file on the time taken for each matter and quotes estimated time frames based on the last thirty matters we have completed. On average, since the amalgamation of the Family Court Consent Orders takes 18.2 working days to approve Consent Orders
Can You assist both of us
- Yes, we can, but only under strict conditions.
- We do not represent either party in this process.
- Each party can obtain their own legal advice; if they are unsure, they should do so.
- We do not negotiate between either party.
- We only document your agreement.
- We do not get involved in disputes
- We are happy to have joint discussions and emails as both parties agree with these principles.
The Seven things to know before you call Kate Austin Family Law for Consent Orders
We have consciously decided not to get involved in any disputes between parties. After 25 years of Family Law, we feel we have “done our bit” with conflict. Suppose you do not have an amicable relationship with your former partner. In that case, we are not a suitable firm to assist you. If you call us, we will say we are “too old and too tired to fight”. Perhaps not too old, but we certainly have better things to focus our energy on than fighting.
We do not interfere with your agreement.
Our clients have taken the time to agree amicably. While this may happen quickly for some, it doesn’t for others. We respect the effort that you have taken to finalise your situation. So long as we believe that your “agreement is fair” and as we act as a neutral party, we will never advise one party to change the agreement. We do not offer independent legal advice.
We work with amicable parties. – we don’t represent either of you.
As a neutral third party, we do not represent either party. We do not offer legal advice but rather procedural advice. Each party is free to seek legal advice if they wish. We encourage parties to seek independent advice if there is any uncertainty.
We specialise in amicable separations.
It should also be noted that parties are not required to obtain independent legal advice with consent orders. Once again, clients are free to do so if they wish.
We only do Consent Orders.
We only work with clients to draft consent orders. We do not dabble in anything else, and we do not engage in litigation matters. We do not draft Binding Financial Agreements or prenuptial agreements or offer any other services.
We are a national service.
We assist clients all over Australia and, in fact, the world so long as their matter can be determined in the Australian Family Court. Family law is a national law governing all Australians equally. The same rules apply in all states ( with some exceptions in Western Australia). Your consent orders can be determined by a registrar within any state (except Western Australia). We have offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra & Brisbane, contact us today for your quote.
We only offer fixed fees.
For simplicity, we only charge fixed fees, avoiding confusion and eliminating a potential dispute over fees. We advise our fees in advance and provide you with a trust account request for that amount. That money will remain in your trust account until the matter is finalised. Then we will pay your account usually a week or two later. Fixed fees avoid potential conflicts.
We will only accept your matter if we believe it’s “just and equitable”.
We complete quite a few hundred matters each year. We are proud that we have never had a matter ejected by the Family Court. We can never guarantee what the court will decide; however, after 25 years of Family Law, we can select matters that the Family Court will approve.
Associations of Which We’re Part
Questions on Consent Orders?
Why People Choose Kate Austin for their Consent Orders.
01
We are experienced.
We have over 25 years of experience in family law. Since moving to amicable Family Law, we have completed 2650 Family Law agreements approved by the Family Court. (January 2024) We have direct contacts in superannuation Funds for superannuation splitting orders. On file, we have 157 superannuation funds approved court orders. We have an extensive support network of valuers, actuaries, accountants, financial planners, and mortgage brokers who are able to assist clients.
02
We are very focused on client service.
As a small business, we need to earn people’s trust. We do this by doing what we say we will do and when we say we will do it.
03
Our fees are always fixed.
To avoid conflict, we are very transparent with our fees. You are provided with a fixed fee agreement and the terms of our service. Please have a look at our quote page to see how much we charge for your matter.
04
We are a neutral party.
We have made a conscious decision not to interfere with your agreement. Our job is to work with both of you to have your Consent Orders approved by the Family Court.
General Questions about the Consent Orders
The Family Court cannot change your agreement. It can only accept or reject the proposed orders submitted by you. If you submit proposed consent orders, they will always remain unchanged regardless of the decision by the court in relation to “just and equitable”.
We take comprehensive instructions from you about the agreement that’s been reached. We then draft your agreement into a document called “Draft Consent Orders” which is based on a format that the court will accept. We also prepare another document called the “Application for Consent Orders”, which has to be filed with the court along with the draft orders. We then send them to you for approval. If you need any changes done, we’ll make them. If there is additional material that needs to go in, we’ll put that in.
There is provision in the fixed fee for the documents to be changed three times. We think we’ll get it right from our end the first time, but this allows you to change the agreement or modify it if you need to at no additional cost. Once you’re happy with the documents, we email them to you and give you instructions on how to sign them and how to file them.
No. You can make a Consent Order as soon as you separate.
In fact, it is recommended you attend to this sooner rather than later. Once a divorce is granted, you have a time limit of 12 months to seek an Order for property settlement, but there is no time limit that applies prior to this occurring.
Many couples attend to resolving their property matters within the first 12 months following separation, so that they may sever their financial ties and have some certainty as to their financial position moving forward. Future care arrangements for children are typically considered immediately following separation, as both parties usually want some stability for their children as soon as they are no longer together.
If you have been separated for 12 months, we can assist you with applying for a divorce for less than $300.00, depending on your circumstances. Please contact us if you’d like to discuss this further or go to our Divorce quote page for an immediate fixed fee quote.
Yes, Kate Austin Family Lawyers will complete the application for consent orders for you. We do this by asking you to complete two intake forms. The first requests your general information, and the second is about your assets and liabilities for a property. We will provide you with a draft which we ask you to look at. This includes all the calculations on how your agreement is presented to the Family Court. Once you are happy with the document we will send a final version for signing electronically. You will be requested to enter a code that we will provide you as proof of ownership. This will also Geo-locate you for validation purposes.
Once again, yes, we will draft the minute of the order for you. The minute of order is a written version explaining how your agreement will be implemented. From your intake forms, we will draft all the required orders concerning real estate, superannuation, investments, loans, cars, cryptocurrency or any other assets or liability you own.
In addition, each order will relate to all assets and all liabilities regardless of whether you are splitting them or not. They will also outline timeframes for each party to comply with ant action required of them. Contingency orders will also outline what happens if one party fails to complete any task required of them.
If you require a superannuation splitting order, you will need to make an application for consent orders. Superannuation funds will not split a fund without a Family Court order. Initially, we will draft your “minute of order” in accordance with your fund’s specific requirements. Different superannuation funds have different orders that they require.
Superannuation splitting follows this process.
- Draft proposed Consent Orders in accordance with your superannuation funds requirements.
- Provide a copy to the outgoing fund and allow 28 days for the fund to respond. This process is known as “procedural fairness”.
- Once you have signed your Consent Orders and application for Consent Orders and your fund has approved the Consent Orders, we submit this to the Family Court for approval.
- When your Consent Orders have been approved, we will send a certified copy to the fund instructing them to split the fund as agreed by you.
- We provide a Regulation 42 notice to the incoming member to provide the fund directions on which fund will receive the money.
The filing fee for an application for consent orders is $195. this fee is reviewed annually and generally changes on the 1st of July each year.
Yes, we do so long as we agree that your matter will be approved by the Family Court. Some matters will need to address issues of “just and equitable” – this is done by a process known as a requestion. For your matter to be not approved in this process, clients will need to complete this process. If we identify that your matter may not be approved by the family court in our initial correspondence, we cannot guarantee to Family court will approve it. Obviously, we are not liable for an agreement that is not just and equitable
All orders we draft and calculations made by us we guarantee. Any errors we make, we fix them without charge.
