O’Loan Family Law parenting coordination service is provided by highly qualified and experienced parenting coordinators specially selected for their knowledge and expertise in these areas. This is a confidential process where our lawyers advise parents on parenting arrangements and come up with practical solutions to common parenting difficulties and conflict between parents. This includes negotiating agreements between parties regarding child custody and access arrangements, resolving disputes over children’s education and health care, and addressing complex legal matters such as separation, divorce and parental alienation.

As well as providing advice and support during difficult times, our parenting coordinators are committed to helping parents build strong relationships with their children, which is essential to ensuring positive outcomes for everyone involved.

 

What Is Parenting Coordination?

Parenting coordination is a process for resolving disputes and parental conflict between parents after separation, that focuses on your kids. Parenting Coordination aims to help you come to a parenting agreement by helping you and your ex-partner come to a positive co-parenting relationship. We are co-parenting facilitators who practice child-centred parenting coordination through a child-focused process. 

If your child is experiencing ongoing conflict during or after a family law proceeding or separation, or even if there has been no legal action taken, this damaging conflict could have negative consequences in their educational, social, and healthy future.

Parenting Coordinators (PCs) facilitate communication between parents and guardians to achieve timely resolution for better future of children.

 

Who Are Parenting Coordinators?

In Australia, parenting coordination is a form of family law practice, family dispute resolution, where parents meet with a family lawyer or other professional who helps them resolve issues regarding family dynamics and issues related to their children. The goal is to ensure that both parents are able to spend time with their kids without resorting to court proceedings. This approach to family law is a collective way to conflict management and conflict resolution to help parents, post – separation come to ongoing parenting arrangements. 

Parenting coordination is becoming increasingly common in Australia. Parents often turn to these professionals because they want to avoid conflict over child custody and visitation arrangements.

 

What Exactly Does A Parenting Coordinator Do?

A parenting coordinator is someone who helps parents come up with a plan for how they will share time with their children. They can help you negotiate agreements that make it easier for both of you to live together as a family.

The role of a parenting coordinator varies from state to state. Parents must use a parenting coordinator if they cannot agree on an arrangement themselves.

In some states, the court appoints a parenting coordinator when one parent wants more or less contact than the other. In others, the parties hire a professional to work out a schedule. The person appointed by the court may be called a “parenting coordinator” or “family law facilitator.”

 

Why Should You Engage a Parenting Coordinator

A Parenting Coordinator can assist you to resolve your disputes outside of the family law courts. This

 helps to:

1. Reduce expensive legal fees.
2. Guide your family through disagreements and conflict.
3. Reduce the harmful effects of conflict, which can impact the wellbeing and future outcomes of your kids.
4. Reduce the likelihood of future contravention applications by dealing with miscommunications, misunderstandings and filling in the ‘gaps’ in orders or parenting plans.
5. Reduce the need for ongoing involvement of your lawyers having to help you resolve your disputes.

Your Parenting Coordinator can achieve a resolution of your disputes and communication issues through lots of different methods. Some of these include

• education about appropriate communication strategies;
• assistance with guiding you both in your communications with each other; and
• managing disagreements about the interpretation of family law orders or parenting plans.

Strategies may include monitoring email communication and coaching you to use more appropriate language.

Your Parenting Coordinator can assist in case managing parenting disputes after orders have been made, rather than you having to return to the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia to deal with breaches or orders or contravention applications.

We find that it is usually the day-to-day arguments about changeover times, sharing of your children’s things and decisions about extra curricular activities, organising time swaps that can cause the most conflict between separated parents.

Parenting Coordination teaches you and your co-parent how to make decisions together about those issues and helps to reduce the daily tension and conflict that can occur.

Ultimately, the goal is to assist both parents over time, so that you can communicate well with each other, with as little conflict as possible, without having to return to lawyers, mediation or the Court.

 

When Should You Use a Parenting Coordinator

A Parenting Coordinator can be ordered by the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia or as agreed between you and the other parent, in situations where:

• You’re finding yourself in ongoing disagreements or arguments about your parenting orders or obligations;
• There’s a history of ongoing conflict between you which is having a negative impact on your kids;
• Your ‘spend time with’ orders (or schedule in your parenting plan) needs frequent tweaking or is unclear; or
• Your child has a medical or psychological condition or disability and ongoing decisions needs to be made about their treatment.

 

Parenting Coordinator – Bron O’Loan

A Parenting Coordinator is a qualified professional (either a lawyer or social scientist) who has completed specialised training in Mediation and Parenting Coordination.

It is important to choose a Parenting Coordinator who is properly qualified and complies with the guidelines for Parenting Coordination from the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.

Our Principal Parenting Coordinator is Bron O’Loan. She is an experienced Collaborative Lawyer and is training in Parenting Coordination by Parenting Coordination Australia, under the guidelines of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC).

Bron is available for Parenting Coordination with joint sessions in Sydney and online in all other areas via video-conferencing. Bron’s goal of parenting coordination is to coach parents and assist you and your ex-partner with your parenting matter using conflict resolution skills to come to a parenting agreement.

 

Parenting Coordination is not…

Therapy or counselling, formal evaluation or investigation, diagnosis of psychological conditions, mediation (only), legal representation, arbitration or confidential.

 

What Are The Costs Associated With Parenting Coordination?

Parenting Coordination sessions are usually 90 minute joint sessions, once a month, for a period of up to 12 months. The process can finish up sooner if you and your co-parent agree for this to happen.

Sessions cost $275 plus GST for each parent. Costs are usually shared but different arrangements can be agreed or ordered, such as one parent offering to meet the entire cost of the sessions.

If your or the other parent cancel a session without sufficient notice, payment is still required to ensure the other parent isn’t financially disadvantaged.

 

Our Parenting Coordination Related Other Services

 

Child Custody

Child custody refers to legal proceedings where parents or guardians seek to gain primary care of their children. The court decides who gets custody of the children after considering the best interests of the children.

Custody battles can be expensive. To ensure that you get the best possible outcome for your case, you should consider hiring a professional attorney. This way, you can rest assured that you’re receiving the best representation possible.

 

Child Custody Arrangements

Courts usually decide child custody arrangements, but sometimes parents agree to share parenting responsibilities. Sometimes, parents don’t get along well enough to reach an agreement. This leads to court proceedings and often involves lawyers.

There are two main types of child custody arrangements: sole custody and joint custody. Sole custody means only one parent gets full parental rights over the children. Joint custody means both parents share equal time with their children.

 

Why Choose Our Parenting Coordinator

We offer top-notch services and professional assistance with qualified childcare lawyers with extensive experience committed to providing excellent customer care for active parents. We strive to work through parental conflict, with the aim of removing the devastating stress children can feel by being stuck in the middle of the conflict. 

Our team consists of highly skilled attorneys dedicated to helping clients achieve their goals. They are always ready to assist you with any legal matters. If you are struggling with child-related conflict, our collaborative practice can provide you with advice on the parenting coordination family process. Book in a complimentary 15-minute call today to discover co-parenting effectiveness.