BURNS & SELLERS

In the matter of *Burns & Sellers*, Hannam J of the Family Court of Australia considered an application for an order restraining the husband's conduct. The dispute concerned the husband's communications with the wife's lawyers.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether to grant an order restraining the husband from communicating with the wife's lawyers in a manner deemed inappropriate and excessive.

Hannam J reasoned that the husband's communications with the wife's lawyers were causing undue disruption and distress. To address this, the Court imposed specific limitations on the husband's ability to communicate, restricting it to written email correspondence only, within defined hours on specific days, and prohibiting offensive or scandalous remarks. This approach aimed to balance the husband's right to communicate with the need to protect the wife's legal representatives from harassment.

The Court ordered that the husband be restrained from communicating with the wife’s lawyers other than in writing via email, limited to one item of email correspondence per week between 10 am and 1 pm on Wednesdays and Fridays, and that any such communications must not contain personal, offensive, insulting, or scandalous comments. The final form of the order was subject to entry in the Court's records.