A Consent Order application and a Minute of Order are required documents to be submitted to the court. You will be required to provide a lot of detailed background information and historical information in your application for Consent Orders. It must clearly state what orders you are asking the court to make for you. Consent Orders cannot be drafted by the court and most people have their family law solicitor draft the documents instead. In the application for Consent Orders, you will find a lot of background information and historical details as well as your current assets and liabilities. There is a table that shows who retains what. You must include in your minute of order exactly the Orders that you are asking the court to make for you.
How does a Consent Order work?
Consent Orders operate similarly to court orders. It will clearly outline the obligations that are imposed on both parties in regard to the finalization of the property settlement for the future care of the children if properly drafted. Consent orders must be drafted carefully because if one party fails to comply with them, the non-defaulting party needs to be able to apply to the court to have them enforced. Court orders should be very specific and clearly state what each party’s obligations are. They make it very clear to the court that the intern is seeking to enforce an order. Consent Orders are different to a divorce application.
When does the Family Court process consent orders?
The timeframe between when you file your documents and when the court makes an Order based on your agreement can vary. However, typically, if all your documentation is in order, it will take the court around four weeks to make the orders. The time of year, as well as the registry in which the documents are filed, can influence this timeframe.
In the event of a breach of a consent order, what happens?
In the event that you have broken a parenting order, the family court usually orders you to attend a post-separation parenting program. It does, however, have a range of sanctions that it can impose, and the penalty imposed generally depends on the severity of the breach of the Consent Orders. The court has the power to impose fines and in fact has the power to jail devoting parties, although this is exceedingly rare.
Consent Orders: What is a ‘Minute of Consent’?
It is essentially the document that you submit to the court in which you lay out all the orders you are asking the court to make on your behalf. A copy of each page must be signed by both parties and is accompanied by an application for Consent Orders that contains relevant background information. In accordance with your minute of order, the court will make Orders and you will receive a sealed copy of your Consent Orders, which are then legally binding. Until Family Court Consent Orders are issued, your Minute of Order is not legally enforceable.
