News
Do I have a family law property adjustment for domestic violence?
You may have heard of the ‘new law’ that takes domestic violence into account in property settlements. This has understandably created a great deal of interest amongst DV victims believing that finally they may get some kind of justice. However, it is important to understand that this law largely codifies existing case law allowing for an adjustment in the property division where domestic violence has made one person’s contributions significantly more arduous: in short, this law is about contributions not justice for harm.
So far there have been few decisions applying the new law, but all the indications are that:
- These adjustments are going to be hard to achieve and require substantial supporting evidence as to the impact of the domestic violence on contributions – and likely an extra 1 to 2 days of trial time;
- Likely to be modest, amounting to a few percent in most cases;
- Highly discretionary (i.e. depends on which Judge you get at trial)
Is it worth it?
Financially it clearly doesn’t make sense to spend more in legal fees than you will achieve in a greater property settlement. Any adjustment will depend on the size of the property pool, the nature of the abuse, the strength of the evidence of abuse, and the Judge you are before.
Other outcomes: Some clients are happy to ‘break even’ on the claim (as in it costs as much in legal fees as it achieves) – to achieve other positive outcomes, such as agreement to an earlier settlement with the other party, or holding the perpetrator to account.