Time Limits in the Family Court of WA- How long does it take?

There are numerous time limits which you need to keep in mind if you are involved in a family law dispute in the Family Court of Western Australia, some of these are as follows

Property settlement/spousal maintenance

1. An application for property settlement and/or spousal maintenance for married couples must be commenced in the Family Court within 12 months of the date of a divorce order taking effect. This is a very important time limit to consider and in many cases results in people delaying a divorce application.
2. For de facto couples, any application for property settlement and/or de facto maintenance must be commenced within two years of the date of separation. NB the time limit difference to married couples.

Divorce

3. An application for divorce may be filed 12 months and one day after separation by either party or jointly.
4. After a divorce application has been filed, if it is a sole application, then that party must serve a copy of the application on the other party at least

1. 1. 28 days prior to the date of the hearing if the party is resident in Australia
   2. 42 days prior to the date of the hearing if the party does not live in Australia.

Appeal

5. After a court order has been made, you have 28 days to lodge a notice of appeal. There are a number of specific time limits as to how an appeal is run. Failure to comply with these time limits can result in the appeal being abandoned and potentially an order for costs being made as a result. 

Filing of Documents

6. If you are involved in a Family Law dispute in the Family Court then it is inevitable that orders will be made during these proceedings for the filing of documents and the provision of disclosure. It is important that you note these dates and ensure that you file your documents in time. The failure to do this may result in an application for what is known as leave to proceed on an undefended basis being brought by the other party. In short, that means if the other party is successful in that regard the Court will in effect not hear your evidence and only that of the other party. Clearly this is a less than ideal outcome if it occurs.

** NB this is not an exhaustive list of all time limits in proceedings in the Family Court of Western Australia