About this Site

Complexfamilies has been prepared to inform interested readers about judgments made by Australian Family Law Courts that involve various psychological topics following the amendment to the Family Law Act in 2006. Complexfamilies summarises principles that have been supported by Australian Family Law Courts in cases that have gone to trial, and summarises circumstances in the cases involved.

Readers interested in family law principles include psychologically-minded adults, therapists, and family solicitors.

Complexfamilies is especially relevant for families under strain as parents are considering separation or have separated.

Complexfamilies aims to be family-focused rather than individual-focused. Complexfamilies aims to reduce friction within families by improving the ability of family members to interact in harmonious ways to balance the reasonable needs of each family member, while remaining within legal principles.  Complexfamilies aims to report principles that are relevant to all members of a family, and not only to support certain members of families.

Complexfamilies aims to reduce the need for disputes to go to court by informing people about principles that are likely to be applied in court, and by allowing people to make their own decisions about matters that affect their family life.

Organisation

Complexfamilies is organised to be used in two main ways:

• a topic can be read like a book by following headings, or
• a user can trace specific topics using the key-word search system. Check the key-words that are used in Complexfamilies in the key-word section, and use the search function.

Invitation

Readers who wish to alert the author to further key-words that will aid communication between lawyers and social scientists are invited to pass on both added key-words and relevant cases to the author using the email feedback system.

Updating

As family law courts continue to make decisions, there is a need to update the Complexfamilies website. Individuals who provide their email address in the Newsletter subscription section to the right will receive news of periodic updates.

Need for Solicitors

The Complexfamilies website does aim to provide a broad education about principles, but the website is not designed to replace the opinion of a solicitor when applying principles to a specific family circumstance.

Readers should be willing to take relevant matters to a skilled family lawyer.

Authors of the Complexfamilies website are not enthusiastic about members of families representing themselves in disputes that go to a family law court.