Wife Succeeds In Property Dispute And Gets Costs

Parramatta City Legal received instructions from Mrs A in a Family Law property dispute against Mr A.

In the course of pre-trial negotiations it became apparent that the husband and his Solicitors adopted an unrealistic view of the case. Parramatta City Legal identified this as a weakness in the husband’s approach to proceedings.

We provided Mrs A with sound and realistic advice as to the likely verdict that would be reached at trial. Given the husband’s uncompromising attitude, we advised our client to advance a formal offer of settlement to the husband early in proceedings. It was advice which she wisely accepted.

The offer of settlement was rejected by the husband even though it represented a reasonable compromise on the facts of the case.

The matter proceeded to a two-day hearing before the Federal Magistrate. Following upon the hearing, Her Honour handed down a decision which was more favourable to our client than the offer she advanced to the husband on our advice. As a result, we applied to the Court for an order that the Husband pay our client’s legal costs from the date of our offer to the date of the hearing on the basis that he was unreasonable and should have accepted the offer. The Court granted the order in keeping with the judicial system’s policy of encouraging settlement negotiations in good faith and penalising those that spitefully increase costs by being overly combative and dogmatic.

We also achieved a successful result for Mrs A in the subsequent proceedings relating to parenting orders for the children. Another very satisfied client.