Chadwick & Darwood

In *Chadwick & Darwood*, heard by Young J, the applicant de facto wife sought urgent spousal maintenance and legal costs from the respondent de facto husband. The proceedings concerned an interim hearing for these financial matters within a de facto relationship breakdown.

The court was required to determine the appropriate quantum of urgent spousal maintenance to be paid by the husband to the wife, and the extent to which the husband should contribute to the wife's legal costs. The court also had to consider the adjournment of the interim hearing and the reservation of costs for the day's proceedings.

Young J ordered the husband to pay urgent spousal maintenance of $900.00 per week, commencing immediately. Furthermore, the husband was directed to pay the wife's legal costs on a dollar-for-dollar basis, requiring him to provide monthly statements of his legal expenses and to pay an equivalent amount to the wife upon incurring his own costs. The wife's costs for the hearing that was adjourned were reserved, and the interim hearing was adjourned to a later date.