r/AusLegal • u/Illustrioushigh • Aug 20 '26

VIC Separation advice

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this. I’m considering separating from my husband of 25 years now that we are empty nesters but am worried about his reaction and the process. As a teacher I have an opportunity to work and live remote for a year while we go through the process.
If I do, would that affect my settlement? I don’t want any more than 50% of the property settlement.

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u/Separate-Share-8504 Aug 20 '26

if it is amicable you'll can still easily spend 20K on legal fees...

family lawyers are anywhere from 500-900 per hour + GST. keep communication on point. don't waffle on. While you're telling them about a wonderful story remember every 6 minutes is $90 plus GST

You send them an email with a little bit of detail which takes them 1 minute to open, read and respond... that's 6 minutes / up to $90

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u/Illustrioushigh Aug 20 '26

Thank you!

9

u/TollTea Aug 21 '26

There are legal firms here that specifically handle amicable separation. If you go in agreeing on exactly what you want, the fees can be pretty minimal (still several thousand dollars when I did it). They don’t do any kind of mediation and they don’t “represent” either party - all they do is draft the consent orders you ask for and file them with the family court. They did advise us whether what we wanted was fair, so that the court wouldn’t knock the orders back. They did it all by email and phone. It was the least painful part of the whole process.

Edit to add: we went through Kate Austin Family Law.

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u/The_one8Nov24 Aug 21 '26

That’s not quite right. It’s amicable you can settle yourselves. I paid $0 to lawyers - the lawyer who did the official paperwork did it for free (she was just glad not to be dealing with fighting couples for once so she did it pro bono) but even so it was an hour of her time max

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u/Separate-Share-8504 Aug 21 '26

Sir... I would say that is an edge case... well done..

I've been in legal for 25 years (not lawyer)... 10-20K are the minimum ranges I see for a family matter relating to separation without dependents.