Much was made when reforms were recently introduced of the impact of including family violence as a ‘contributions’ factor in terms of assessing a family law property division. Commencing 10 June 2025, alongside issues such as day to day financial and non-financial contributions, initial contributions to relationships, inheritances, gifts or loans from family, redundancies and lottery wins, family violence was included as a factor for consideration.
It was speculated that this may lead to a seismic shift in the way property divisions were assessed, but to date, there is little evidence of this occurring. Part of the difficulty in including family violence as a factor is connecting the alleged family violence with impact on the contributions of the parties otherwise – family violence not only needs to be established, but may need to be of such a character that it prevented or made more difficult other contributions. Given the recency of the changes however, there has not been significant guidance from the Court in terms of judgments to know what precisely the Court will look for or be satisfied with in terms of family violence as a contributions factors.
Given the lead time associated with hearing family law cases (in the region of 12 months) it may be simply that over the next 6-12 months we will see more and more cases being advanced, successfully and unsuccessfully that will give lawyers and parties guidance on how to best approach arguments about family violence and contributions, and what is going to be needed to satisfy the Court.
In the meantime, it is critical to find a lawyer that can take detailed instructions and sort the facts of your experiences from the assumptions being made, whether you are alleging violence or defending yourself against claim. Contact our family lawyers at Nevett Ford Lawyers to discuss your situation and see how the 2025 changes might affect your case.
