Parenting & Child Custody
Canberra’s leading parenting & children’s matters lawyers
Nicholls Anzani Family Lawyers specialise in helping parents to ensure their children’s wellbeing is supported and protected. However straightforward or complex your circumstances are, our role is to guide you through the process in a manner that you fulsomely understand and lead to optimal and timely outcomes.
We work closely with our clients to understand their family dynamic. Every family and every child is different, and a tailored approach is essential.
Read on to learn all of the ways in which we help with matters relating to children and parenting or click on the areas of interest:
Speak to our family lawyers early. Expect practical insights, expert guidance and attention to detail.
Separating with children
Whether you are yet to separate or you are already separated, how your children will respond and be impacted by your separation in the short and longer-term will likely be front and centre in your mind. We help parents to navigate these important first steps with insights from our team.
Our lawyers have particular expertise in the following areas:
- Advice for how to inform and support your child/ren;
- Negotiation of Parenting Plans;
- Custody arrangements for the primary and non-primary parent;
- The allocation of decision-making responsibility between parents;
- Advising on alienation and alignment of children with a parent;
- Family violence and safety issues for children and parents;
- Assisting in the recovery of children, where they have been abducted or taken without consent of the other parent;
- Advising on domestic and international relocation, both for the parent who seeks to leave and the parent who opposes;
- Change of a child’s residence;
- Complex mental health issues;
- International Child Abduction and Hague Convention matters;
- Parentage disputes (e.g. legal/biological parentage);
- Disputes about school selection and education-related matters;
- Children’s views and wishes;
- Parenting orders, in contested in court proceedings or by consent; and
- Assisting grandparents and other people concerned with the care, welfare and development of a child.
Navigating the complexities of co-parenting after separation is difficult. We approach parenting and children’s matters with sensitivity and care, laser focused on achieving outcomes that align with the best interests of your children.
For more insights into separation with children, click here to see our recommended reading or reach out for advice and to determine a tailored strategy.
Parenting & care arrangements
Our team provides advice and insights into negotiating arrangements or resolving matters in relation to:
- Living / time arrangements
- Parental decision-making responsibility (e.g. medical, health, education etc)
- Parenting Plans
- Parenting Orders
- Child support
- Enforcement
For additional insights into parenting and care arrangements, click here to see our recommended reading or meet with one of our family lawyers to discuss your circumstances.
Parenting & child custody disputes
We provide advice, insights and representation in matters including:
- Shared care arrangements
- Sole or shared decision-making authority (parental responsibility)
- Visitation rights
- Supervised contact
- Allegations of abuse or neglect
- Intervention Orders
- Restraining Orders
- Guardianship
- Medical/health disputes between parents with shared parental responsibility
- Parental alienation
- International or interstate relocation with a child
- International access disputes
- Contested Court Proceedings
For additional insights into custody related disputes, click here to see our recommended reading or contact our team for advice and to determine a tailored strategy.
Relocating with children
We provide advice before, during and after relocation with a child. Our team has extensive experience helping parents and carers on both sides of relocation matters both domestically and internationally. We help with restriction or regulation of where a child can travel, including matters like these:
- Relocating with a child to another suburb, region, remote or rural area
- Relocation with a child to another state or territory of Australia
- Relocation with a child to another country
- Relocation following family violence
- Temporary relocation outside of Australia (extended time period)
- Injunctions – to prohibit anticipated relocation / travel outside of state/country
- Injunction or Recovery Orders – to return a child who has been relocated
- Relocation Orders – to permit a parent or carer to relocate
- Relocation Orders – to prohibit a parent or carer from relocating
For additional insights into relocation of children, click here to see our recommended reading or make an appointment to discuss your concerns with a family lawyer experienced in relocation-related matters.
Child location & child recovery
If a child is being withheld, their whereabouts are unknown, or at risk of being hidden, our family lawyers can assist with urgent applications for:
- Enforcement of Parenting Orders
- Location Orders
- Recovery Orders
- Airport Watch List Orders
- Passport Surrender Orders
This relates to domestic location and recovery and international child location and recovery. For international child location and recovery matters, go to this section below.
For urgent advice and assistance, contact us. For additional insights into child location and recovery, see our recommended reading here.
Children & family violence
We assist children and parents with advice and clarity about the options available to them, including (but not limited to) support services and protective mechanisms that can be urgently applied for via the ACT & NSW Courts or the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.
Our team helps protect children’s safety and wellbeing by working with you to develop a safety plan, and make applications to the Court to restrict or regulate the perpetrator in some way through:
- Urgent Applications for Family Violence Orders (FVOs) – ACT
- Applications for Apprehended Domestic Violence Orders – NSW
- Application for Parenting Orders (Court Ordered care arrangements)
Our team has particular expertise in this area and can assist you with confidence, speed and precision.
Click here to see recommended reading about parenting and protection orders or to get advice about the options you have available to you to protect yourself and your children, reach out to our team.
International parenting & custody matters
We help individuals and families with advice, insights and representation in international family law matters including:
- International family breakdown and relocation
- Negotiation & finalisation of parenting arrangements
- Child support
- Airport Watch List Orders
- International child abduction & Recovery Orders
- Injunctive Orders to stop the removal of a child from Australia
- Contravention Orders – if a parent is in breach of Parenting Orders; or
- You wish to oppose an Application for Orders
For prompt or urgent assistance with international parenting related matters, contact our team immediately.
For insights into international parenting and custody matters, click here to see our recommended reading.
Non-compliance with Orders
If the conditions of Protection Orders and/or Parenting Orders have not been complied with, there are opportunities for restitution through contravention proceedings. We assist clients with advice and filing Contravention applications with the relevant Courts.
These include non-compliance with:
- Parenting Orders
- Child Protection Orders
- Family Violence Orders
- Guardianship Orders
- AVO’s
- ADVO’s
- Child Support Orders
- Passport Surrender Orders
Contravention applications are serious, and our team is highly skilled in this area.
Contested Court proceedings
Litigation requires specialist skill and expertise. Our team is highly experienced in all aspects of family law litigation, with particular expertise in complex parenting and property proceedings.
We have two accredited Independent Children’s Lawyers at Nicholls Anzani Family Lawyers. Bridget Madigan and Timothy Nicholls who are regularly appointed by parties privately, and by the Court, to represent the best interests of children in contested parenting proceedings.
Our skills extend beyond primary Court proceedings. We are experts in:
- Costs Applications
- Defending Costs Applications
- Appeals on conflicts of interest (interim and final decisions)
- Appeals on Costs Applications (interim and final decisions)
- Third party proceedings
To speak with one of our highly experienced family lawyers click below or discover our recommended reading about contested parenting matters, visit this page.
