It is possible for a couple to come to an agreement whereby one pays the other spousal maintenance. It is possible to pay maintenance in the form of a lump sum or in the form of regular payments, such as weekly or monthly. Providing for spousal maintenance Orders in your Consent Orders can be agreed to by the parties. Once the agreement for spousal maintenance is signed, it becomes legally binding.
Spousal Maintenance
If you are in a de facto relationship with your spouse, you can consent to a spousal maintenance Order. There is no requirement that you be married. You can set whatever rules you want to implement regarding the payment of spousal maintenance. You could put a timeframe around spousal maintenance payments, such that they continue for a certain period of time, or until, for example, a child reaches a certain age. Many people use spousal maintenance while they are undertaking a course of study that will enable them to re-enter the workforce and earn their own income.
In the same way that Consent Orders finalizing a property settlement are legally binding, Consent Orders that deal with the payment of spousal maintenance are legally binding as well. This means that they can be enforced by one party against the other if they are not followed or complied with.
Who prepares the terms of a Consent Order?
If you wish to have your Consent Orders legally binding and enforceable, it is important to draft them in a way that makes them clear and that they are drafted in a way that makes them unambiguous. If you submit proposed Consent Orders to the Family Court and they are not drafted in such a way that the court can enforce them, then the court will reject them and ask that they be resubmitted. The idea is that if one party does not follow the Consent Orders then the other party must be able to take the matter to court and ask for the court to enforce the Consent Orders.
If the Consent Orders are not capable of enforcement then the court will not be able to enforce them for you. Accordingly, although some people do draft their own Consent Orders, it is not something that is generally recommended. In drafting Consent Orders, a good lawyer will ensure that all scenarios are covered and there is no room for ambiguity. Consent Orders are drafted properly to ensure that everything is covered and that nothing is accidentally left out, which can result in a situation where one party is unable to enforce the Consent Orders because they were poorly drafted or something was accidentally omitted.
In broad terms, there is usually a good reason to get a plumber to do your plumbing or an accountant to do your tax return. The same reasons you’d get professionally qualified people to assist with other aspects of your life apply to getting a lawyer to draft your Consent Orders. Poorly drafted Consent Orders can see you having to make a court application down the track to rectify something that wasn’t done properly, and the matter can end up being far more expensive and protracted than it could have been if the documents had been drafted correctly in the first place.
Please contact our Kate Austin Family Lawyers for a fixed fee for your Consent Orders.
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