Family Law Parenting and Children’s Matters
WEB213N60: Gain practical insights into important issues for your family law practice and your parenting and children’s matters. You’ll examine urgent parenting and financial applications, address how the courts are dealing with parental alienation and child protection, and how to address financial abuse and coercion on parenting orders. Learn also how to deal with personality disorders and substance abuse in relation to briefing experts, evidence and capacity.
Description
Attend and earn 4 CPD units including:
2 units in Substantive Law
2 units in Professional Skills
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
Once seminars are completed, delegates from Western Australia may apply to The Law Society of Western Australia for family law specialist accreditation points. Each application is subject to approval by the Accreditation Committee on a case by case basis and approval is not guaranteed. Your request for points form and attached materials can be emailed to accreditation@lawsocietywa.asn.au
Chair: Tijana Petkovic, Director, Blanchfield Nicolls
Professional Skills
1.00pm to 2.00pm Urgent Parenting and Financial Applications
Examine in detail and discuss the court’s current approach to urgent parenting and financial applications. Plus, gain practical insights on running electronic hearings in urgent interim parenting matters and the impacts of recent changes to evidence and procedure.
- Court’s approach to urgent parenting and financial applications
- Urgent contravention applications
- COVID-19 List: how it’s working in practice
- How to navigate electronic hearings in urgent interim parenting cases
- Changes to evidence and procedure and how to deal with them
- Analysis of recent decisions and the practical takeaways for your matters
Presented by Melinda Winning, Partner, Barkus Doolan Family Lawyers; Accredited Specialist in Family Law; Leading Family & Divorce Lawyer and Leading Parenting & Children’s Matters Lawyer, Doyle’s Guide 2020
2.00pm to 3.00pm Parental Alienation and Child Protection
- How to advise and guide your client to the best resources
- How the courts might rule on parental alienation
- Divorce and separation through a child’s eyes: how to protect them
- Useful tools for navigating co-parenting issues
- Parenting plans, consent orders and parenting arrangements
- Binding child support agreements
- Grandparent rights
Presented by Carly Middleton, Partner, Barkus Doolan Family Lawyers; Accredited Specialist in Family Law; Leading Family & Divorce Lawyer and Leading Parenting & Children’s Matters Lawyer, Doyle’s Guide 2020
3.00pm to 3.10pm Break
3.10pm to 4.10pm Dealing with Financial Abuse and Coercion: Impacts on Parenting Orders
- The relevance of different forms of family violence to parenting matters
- Economic and financial family violence in parenting matters: How do things stand now and do they need to change?
- How do the Courts treat various forms of family violence and do they differentiate between various forms
- Coercive controlling behaviour as a form of family violence relevant to parenting matters
- Family Law orders to prevent the alleged perpetrators from cross examining the alleged victims
- Seeking preliminary directions in domestic violence: s58 Jury Directions Act 2015
Presented by Rachell Davey, Partner, Lander &Rogers; Accredited Specialist in Family Law; Recommended Parenting & Children’s Lawyer, Doyle’s Guide 2020
Professional Skills
4.10pm to 5.10pm Dealing with Personality Disorders and Substance Abuse: Experts, Evidence and Capacity
- Diagnosis
- Key characteristics of personality disorders (PD): distinguishing between traits, transient states and key behaviours, the issue of severity and relapse
- How does the expert communicate the implications of the diagnosis?
- Issues in understanding substance abuse: dependence, problem use and recreational users and the effect of drug use on competence
- Implications of diagnosis for decision making, capacity and parenting
- Treatment: options for PDs and substance abusers
- Therapeutic avenues for PDs and substance abuse
- What to expect from treatment
- The report and expert in court
- Testing the underlying assumptions, clinician experience, knowledge and skills
- Reliability and validity of assessment approaches and how to challenge experts on this
- Challenging the report
- Key issues in diagnosis (e.g. dimensions of behaviour vs categorical diagnosis; mutability of behaviour, responsiveness to treatment and the role of context in understanding behaviour)
- Assessment methods and limitations of the role of expert assessors and treating experts
- Capacity to instruct
- Cognitive competence, reasoning and understanding, communication competence
Presented by Dr Christopher John Lennings OAM, LSC Psychology
5.10pm to 5.15pm Closing Remarks