Will the Court make Consent Orders?
Once you lodge with the Court your Application for Consent orders, Minutes of Consent Orders and supporting documents, then a Registrar will review all the documents within 4 to 6 weeks.
A Registrar is a human being, similar to a Judge, but not as senior. The Registrar will check that you have completed all the documents correctly and decide whether or not to approve your Application for Consent Orders. It is not enough that you and your former partner simply agree on the property settlement.
The Registrar will decide whether to make a final Court Order based on the following:
Whether the agreement ends the financial relationship between you and your former partner, which means that there are no jointly held assets or liabilities once your agreement is implemented.
Whether the overall percentage division of the total net assets, including superannuation, is just and equitable. The Registrar will apply the provisions of the Family Law Act to make this decision and use the information you included in the Application for Consent Orders: a summary of the financial and non-financial contributions made by you and your former partner, and a summary of the current and future circumstances of your former partner such as your age, health, income earning capacity, the care arrangements for any children and access to any financial resources.
If your agreement includes a superannuation split, then whether you have given procedural fairness to the Super Fund and provided evidence of the current balance of the Super Fund, which includes the following:
The letter you sent to the Super Fund to notify them of the proposed superannuation splitting orders;
The letter in response from the Super Fund to confirm there is no objection to the superannuation split; and
A statement or screenshot of the current balance of the Super Fund from which the superannuation entitlements are being split, or if it is a Defined Benefit Super Fund then an independent valuation report.
Whether you have provided all the necessary supporting documents, such as copies of any existing court orders relating to family law and evidence of registration of a de facto relationship.
