After a separation or divorce a lawyer can give you advice about the different ways that you can settle on decisions about your children and the parenting arrangements. They can help you to better understand your rights and responsibilities, what options are available to you and give you advice to assist you to make decisions.

A lawyer can give you information about the processes and procedures, available options and different types of formal and informal parenting agreements that are available to you.

There are parenting plans and parenting orders. Parenting plans are informal agreements that can be made when parents agree about arrangements. Parenting orders are formal orders of the court. When parents can agree about the parenting arrangements they may decide to draft a parenting plan and apply to have it approved by the court. The plan then becomes known as consent orders and can be enforced by the court. When parents cannot agree the court can make parenting orders about their parental responsibilities. Each parent can ask the court for specific order but the court will make the final decision.

You will probably have a lot of questions about these different options. Your lawyer can:

• give you information and help you to understand the principles that apply to your situation and the consequences of each type of agreement;

• suggest alternatives that may be available instead of going to court such as mediation or negotiating consent orders;
• explain the court processes and procedures;
• give you advice about the strength of your case, the likely timeframes and estimate the costs;
• help you to get a better outcome on the issues that are important to you by entering into negotiations on your behalf;
• prepare your court documents and represent you in court; and
• refer you to services that can assist you.

Each case is unique because of the facts and issues involved. Parents make decisions about parenting arrangements differently. Sometimes agreement comes easily. Sometimes you need a bit of help. This help may come from a counsellor, family and friends, a mediator or a lawyer. Unfortunately there are times when parents cannot agree and in these cases the court may need to make these decisions for you both.

If the case does end up in court a lawyer can explain the process and what you can expect. They can also provide you with legal representation in court. This means they can tell the court your side of the story, explain to the court the parenting arrangements you hope for and they can also tell the court what outcome you hope for. Lawyers can continue to help with negotiations. Even after court proceedings have started there is always the option of coming to an agreement with your ex-partner.