How to prepare for your first appointment with your Solicitor
Meeting with a family law solicitor for the first time can be overwhelming for some and many people are unsure about what they should prepare and bring with them to their first appointment.
There are certainly things that you can do to make it easier for us to help and provide you with advice during the first appointment. Of course, there may be some information that you are unsure of or simply do not have. This is also okay and is usually not a reason to delay or put off going to see a solicitor.
Below is a guide of information and/or documents that could be helpful to provide to your solicitor at your initial appointment.
Information Relating to Other Relevant Proceedings
You might have other ongoing or previous legal matters or litigation that will be relevant for your solicitor to know about and consider during your initial appointment. It is best to let your solicitor know if you think that this might apply to you and provide them with some further information about this, so that they can request further details/documents from you if necessary.
For example, this could extend to matters such as:-
Domestic violence proceedings – if there is or has been previous Domestic Violence Orders, then your solicitor should be made aware about this and provided with a copy of the order, if you are able to produce this;
Previous proceedings relating to Parenting/Property matters, even if this is with a different party to the current legal matter you are seeking advice about;
Binding Financial Agreements, even if this is with a different party to the current legal matter you are seeking advice about;
Personal Injury Claims; and
Estate Litigation matters.
Legal Documents/Correspondence
You may have already been served with court documents or have received legal correspondence from another Solicitor. If this is the case, then you should try your best to bring these documents with you to your appointment or provide these to the solicitor beforehand.
Property Matters
If you are consulting with us about a property settlement matter, then below is a list of information that might be helpful to provide to your lawyer:
The names of any company / trust or super fund in which you have an interest as shareholder, director or beneficiary;
A list of your assets, liabilities, superannuation entitlements and the values of each item (regardless of whether it is owned by you, your partner, both of you, a company, a trust or a super fund)
A list of what assets and liabilities you and the other party owned at the time you started living together;
A brief history of your financial circumstances and the parenting arrangements (if relevant) throughout your relationship and since separation;
Details of whether you or the other party have received any windfalls of cash, gifts and/or inheritances and if so, details of when these were received and the values;
Details about any non-financial contributions made by either party, such as improvements, renovation works and so forth;
Details about the homemaker and parenting (if applicable) contributions of you both, for example, did one party take on a greater role in caring for the children and the household chores and tasks?
Details about the respective future needs of you and the other party, such as:
Your age and health. You should tell us if either of you have any health issues, especially if these might impact on your ability to continue working and earning income;
Your respective earning capacities;
Details of who is caring for the children and for what times and whether this is likely to change;
Details as to who is paying child support, such as how much, whether this is a private agreement, informal agreement or by way of a child support assessment;
Anything else which you think is relevant to the differences in the future of you and the other party.
Information about what you would like to keep in the property settlement and what the other party wants to keep (or you think they want to keep);
Specifics as to what negotiations, offers or discussions may have already taken place; and
Anything else you think we need to know or that might be relevant to consider.
Parenting Matters
If you are consulting with us about a parenting matter, then below is a list of information that might be helpful to provide to your solicitor:
The names and birthdates for your child/ren;
Information about the schools, kindy, day care for your child/ren;
The care arrangements for the children before separation, e.g. who was responsible for what in terms of caring for the children during your relationship;
What care arrangements you and the other party are proposing now (they may be similar or they may be very different) and we ask you to think about how the child/ren will divide their time between their parents at these times:
During the school terms;
During school holidays;
On “special” days or times such as;
i. The children’s birthdays;
ii. The parents’ birthdays;
iii. Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day weekends;
iv. Easter,
v. Christmas.
How are the child or children are to move between you and your partner? E.g. changeovers at school?
Any special needs of the child/ren and any health conditions affecting the child/ren and the effect on the child/ren of those needs / issues.
How the child/ren are doing at school and any extracurricular activities they attend;
How are the children going to communicate with the parent whom they are not living with? E.g. phone calls / WhatsApp/ email / facetime;
How are you and your partner going to communicate about the children? Have you considered a communication app such as Our Family Wizard;
Are the children in touch with their grandparents and wider families?;
How are the children’s day to day expenses, school fees, medical cover etc to be funded?;
Is there a child support assessment in place (if yes, please bring it in to show us);
How are the arrangements working now? If things are not working, make a list of what is going wrong; and
Anything else you think we may need to know.
You may wish to create a document, setting the above information out in dot point form and provide this to the lawyer before or at the outset of the appointment if that assists.
Questions
Understandably, you will probably have many questions you wish to ask your lawyer at your initial appointment. We would recommend that you write down a list of your questions and bring these with you to the appointment so that these are not forgotten and we can ensure that they are answered for you.
Want to know more?
If you would like to make an appointment, then please phone us on (07) 5458 9000 for a free chat with one of our solicitors.
Yours faithfully,