Let us be your voice in troubled times

{EM.POW.ER}: to make someone stronger and more confident by giving them the power or authority to control their life and claim their rights.

Our Mission

We help clients navigate family law matters with clear advice, practical strategy and trusted representation.

Service

From your first consultation to resolution, we provide responsive, compassionate legal support tailored to your family’s needs.

Expertise

Specialists in mediation, parenting matters and dispute resolution, with experienced representation when litigation is required.

Resolve

Everyone deserves clear legal advice and practical solutions.

Your first 30-minute consultation is free. Call +61 3 7020 6542 to speak with our team, or book a consultation.

Family law services

Family law matters can affect your children, home, finances, safety and future. We explain the options that apply to your circumstances and help you choose a practical path forward. Our services include:

• Parenting and child custody, including parenting arrangements and disputes about children
• Property settlement, superannuation and other financial matters after separation
• Divorce and separation
• Binding financial agreements
• Child support and spousal maintenance
• Family violence and intervention orders
• Consent orders
• De facto relationships
• Grandparents and other carers
• Child relocation
• Family mediation and dispute resolution
• Urgent family law issues

We work with clients across Victoria and offer flexible consultation options, including remote appointments.

Your first consultation with us

1. Free 30-minute consultation

What to expect: We’ll explain your rights, options and next steps.

2. Working together

• Regular updates
• Clear advice
• Prompt replies
• Your advocate

3. Before your appointment

If they are relevant to your matter, have the following information ready:

• Court documents
• Financial details
• Children’s information

Urgent? Call us now on +61 3 7020 6542.

Meet the team

Our team combines legal experience with practical, compassionate support:

• Renishka Naidoo-Weisse — Special Counsel
• Stephanie Reid — Director and Principal
• Vicki Zrajko — Solicitor
• Stephanie Pearce — Practice Manager

Meet the full Empower Family Law & Mediation team.

Take the first step

Your first 30-minute consultation is free. Speak with our team for clear advice about your circumstances and practical next steps.

Book a consultation or call +61 3 7020 6542.

How family law matters are resolved in Australia

Most matters never reach a final hearing. Knowing the routes available, and the order they usually run in, makes the first conversation with a lawyer far more useful.

1. Advice first. You find out where you stand, what the realistic range of outcomes is, and what the next step should be. Nothing is committed to at this stage.
2. An attempt to resolve it between you. The Court expects parties to make every effort to resolve a dispute before starting litigation, where it is safe to do so. In parenting matters, family dispute resolution is mandatory before an application can be filed, unless an exemption is granted.
3. Formalising the agreement. An informal agreement binds nobody. Financial arrangements are documented either by consent orders or by a financial agreement; parenting arrangements by a parenting plan, which is not enforceable, or by parenting orders, which are.
4. Court, only where it is needed. If agreement cannot be reached, an application is filed. Even then, matters can and frequently do settle at any stage before the final hearing.

Where a matter does proceed, the earlier steps are rarely wasted: the financial disclosure and the narrowing of issues carry across.

Time limits worth knowing now

Several deadlines in family law are easy to miss and difficult to recover from, because applying out of time requires the Court's permission, which is not always granted.

• If you were married, an application for property adjustment must generally be made within 12 months of your divorce becoming final.
• If you were in a de facto relationship, you have two years from the breakdown of the relationship.
• A divorce application requires 12 months and one day of separation before it can be filed.
• There are no time limits for child support or child maintenance.

You do not have to wait for a divorce to resolve your property, and in many cases it is better to deal with the property first so the 12-month deadline never becomes relevant. See why timing is important for the deadlines that apply once a case has started.

If you are not safe

If you or a child is in immediate danger, call 000. If you are not in immediate danger but want to report family violence to police, call 131 444 or attend a police station.

Family violence is broader than physical assault. Under the Family Law Act 1975 it is violent, threatening or other behaviour that coerces or controls a family member, or causes them to be fearful, and it can include emotional and psychological abuse, financial or economic abuse, threats, stalking, damage to property and exposing children to any of these. It is relevant both to parenting arrangements and, since 10 June 2025, to how property is divided.

Free and confidential support is available through Family Advocacy and Support Services, which provide duty lawyers and social support workers to people with a family law matter affected by family violence, and which you can use even if you already have your own lawyer. See family violence and intervention orders.

Court information on this page reflects the published guidance of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, as at 27 October 2026. It is general information only, not legal advice, and does not replace advice about your own circumstances.

Our family law services, explained

The list above links to each area. Below is what each one actually involves, so you can work out which pages are relevant before you call.

Parenting and child custody

Arrangements for children after separation: who a child lives with, the time and communication they have with each parent and with other significant people, and who makes decisions about major long-term issues such as schooling, health and religion. The Court treats the child's best interests as its paramount consideration, weighing the safety of the child and each carer, any views the child expresses, the child's developmental, psychological, emotional and cultural needs, and each parent's capacity to meet them. There is no presumption of equal time, and the presumption of equal shared parental responsibility was removed from the Family Law Act on 6 May 2024. Arrangements can be informal, recorded in a parenting plan, or made binding as parenting orders.

Property settlement and superannuation

Dividing what you own and owe after separation. There is no formula and no fixed percentage: the Court identifies and values the assets, liabilities and financial resources, assesses each party's contributions including as homemaker and parent, considers each party's future needs, and asks whether the overall result is just and equitable. Since 10 June 2025 it must also consider the economic effect of family violence. Superannuation is treated as a different type of property and can be split, though splitting does not convert it to cash and the fund's trustee must be given notice before an order is made. Married couples generally have 12 months from a final divorce to apply; de facto couples have two years from separation.

Divorce and separation

Separation is a question of fact: the point the relationship ended and that was communicated. Divorce is a separate legal process that formally ends a marriage and requires 12 months and one day of separation. Neither resolves property, finances or arrangements for children. Australia has no-fault divorce, so the Court does not consider why the marriage ended. You can be separated while still living under one roof, though that requires supporting affidavit evidence, including from a third person. A divorce order usually takes effect one month and one day after the hearing, and starts a 12-month clock for property and maintenance applications.

Consent orders and binding financial agreements

Two ways to make an agreement binding, and they work differently. Consent orders are orders of the Court: a Registrar must be satisfied that parenting orders are in the child's best interests and that financial orders are just and equitable, and once made they carry the Court's enforcement powers. A financial agreement is a contract under the Act, which no court reviews when it is made, and each party must obtain independent legal advice from an Australian lawyer before signing. An agreement can be entered into before, during or after a relationship; consent orders are made after separation. An informal agreement, by contrast, binds nobody.

Child support and spousal maintenance

Child support is assessed and administered by Services Australia using a legislated formula based on both parents' incomes, the percentage of care each provides, and the number and ages of the children. There are no time limits for child support. Spousal and de facto maintenance is different: it is financial support for a former partner who cannot adequately support themselves, measured against the other party's capacity to pay, and it is subject to time limits of 12 months after a divorce or two years after a de facto relationship ends. An entitlement to maintenance ends on remarriage unless a court otherwise orders in special circumstances.

Family violence and intervention orders

Family violence under the Family Law Act is behaviour that coerces or controls a family member, or causes them to be fearful, and it is much broader than physical assault: it includes emotional, psychological and financial abuse, threats, stalking, damage to property and exposing children to any of these. It sits at the centre of parenting decisions, because the first matter the Court must consider is what arrangements promote the safety of the child and each carer, and it is now relevant to property division as well. Family Violence Intervention Orders are made by the Magistrates' Court of Victoria and can be sought alongside family law proceedings.

De facto relationships

Separating de facto couples are dealt with in much the same way as married couples, with the same principles applied under different sections of the Act. Two threshold questions come first: whether there was a genuine de facto relationship, judged on factors including the length of the relationship, living arrangements, financial interdependence, property, commitment to a shared life and how others saw it; and whether there is a geographical connection to a participating jurisdiction, being every state and territory except Western Australia. At least one of four further criteria must be met. The time limit is two years from the breakdown of the relationship.

Family mediation and dispute resolution

Most family law matters are resolved without a final hearing. In parenting matters, family dispute resolution with a practitioner registered with the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department is mandatory before an application can be filed unless an exemption is granted, and the practitioner issues the certificate the Court requires. Court-based dispute resolution is free; Family Relationship Centres offer an hour of joint dispute resolution free per couple. Communications are generally confidential and inadmissible, subject to the practitioner's reporting obligations where safety is involved. An agreement reached privately is not automatically binding and needs to be formalised.

Child relocation and grandparents and other carers

Relocation arises where a proposed move would significantly affect a child's relationship with the other parent. There is no separate legal test: it is decided within the ordinary best interests framework, and these cases turn on the practical detail of how the relationship would be preserved after a move. Where a child has already been moved or taken overseas, recovery orders, the Hague Convention and passport proceedings may apply, and all are time-sensitive. Separately, parenting orders are not limited to parents: a grandparent, or any person concerned with a child's care, welfare and development, can apply, and the Court operates a Critical Incident List where no parent is available to care for a child.

Urgent family law issues

Urgency is something you apply for and support with evidence, not a label. An urgent listing is sought as an interlocutory order, supported by an affidavit and a cover letter identifying the basis for urgency and pointing to the relevant paragraphs. In extremely urgent situations an order can be sought without notice to the other party, which carries a high duty of candour on the applicant. The situations that genuinely qualify are those where waiting would make the harm irreversible: a child about to be removed from Australia, assets about to be dissipated, a party left without means to meet immediate living expenses, or a safety concern needing immediate protection.

What it costs to find out where you stand

Legal costs are the most common reason people delay getting advice, and delay is frequently what narrows their options. Initial appointments at Empower Family Law & Mediation usually run for 1 to 1.5 hours, with the first 30 minutes at no charge and the balance at the lawyer's hourly rate. You leave with advice on your rights, entitlements and options, an estimate of your legal costs, and a clear next step. A Costs Agreement follows, setting out the terms of your engagement and an estimate of total costs, with a tax invoice at the end of each month or on the conclusion of a significant event or hearing.

It is also worth knowing that you are not required to be represented, or even to seek legal advice, before entering into consent orders or applying to the Court. Family law is complex and advice helps you understand what orders can actually be made, but free and low-cost options exist alongside private representation, including the Family Relationship Advice Line on 1800 050 321, legal aid commissions and community legal centres.