When parents separate, one of the hardest questions is: “What arrangements are in my child’s best interests?” If parents can’t agree, the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia can make parenting orders. The law does not ask what is “fair” to each parent. It asks what arrangements best promote…

Reversal of care in parenting cases (when the Court changes who the children live with) “Reversal of care” is shorthand for a parenting outcome where the Court orders that children stop living primarily with the current carer (often the parent they have been living with for some time) and instead…

Overview In Pickford & Pickford the Full Court (Division 1 appellate jurisdiction) allowed a father’s appeal from final parenting orders because the first-instance process miscarried in a way that denied procedural fairness, and because multiple findings that the father perpetrated “family violence” (particularly coercive/controlling behaviour) were not legally or factually…