Jeffries and Jeffries

This matter came before Judge Howard concerning parenting orders for the children of the parties, Jeffries and Jeffries. The dispute centred on determining the best interests of the children in accordance with the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth).

The court was required to consider the paramount consideration of the best interests of the child as stipulated in section 60CA of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth). To assist in this determination, the court elected to first examine the "additional considerations" outlined in section 60CC(3) of the Act, before returning to the "primary considerations" found in section 60CC(2). This approach was supported by previous case law.

The court's reasoning was informed by a family report prepared by Mr J, dated 22 May 2012, which included interviews with one of the children, Z. Z's statements indicated a lack of enthusiasm for seeing her father, recalling instances where her father did not look after her and expressing fear about seeing him outside of a contact centre due to a past incident involving her father taking her and the police being involved. Z also described her mother as tired and not doing much, while noting her father's anger towards her mother. Despite these concerns, Z did state that she looked forward to seeing her father.

The court made orders requiring the Independent Children’s Lawyer to provide a proposed Final Order to the parties by 29 July 2013. The parties were directed to attempt to reach an agreed position on the wording of the Final Order by the same date. In the event of an inability to agree, the matter was to be listed for mention, with personal attendance required by each party and their legal representatives.