It is November and thoughts turn to the Christmas countdown. It is also an important time for practitioners and their clients to consider the cut-off filing dates for the Family Court.
Under the Family Court rules Rule 5.01A (1) This rule applies to an application for a parenting order relating in whole or part to the school holiday period beginning in December in a year (the application year) and extending to January in the following year.
(2) The application must be filed before 4.00 pm on the second Friday in November of the application year.
What this means is that if you want to apply for a parenting order relating to the school holiday period or travel issues you need to do so this year before 4pm 14 November 2014.
It is a busy time for the Family Court so the regulations above have set this cut-off time in an attempt to handle this busy time of year with people attempting to organise a hearing date before Christmas shutdown on 24 December.
Also if you are planning overseas travel with your children it is important to remember that under s 65Y of the Family Law Act 1975 if you are subject to current parenting order proceedings you must obtain written consent from the other parent or guardian if you are planning on taking a child out of Australia for a holiday even if it is only for a short trip.