Thanks for dropping by. I just wanted to have
a quick chat about financial agreements because
one of the questions that we're often so often
asked from customers who are contemplating
entering into a financial agreement is "why
do I need to get the legal advice?"
Quite often they'll say "look we've reached
this agreement ourselves, we don't need anybody
else to tell us what we need to do, we know
exactly what we want to do - so why do we
need to get legal advice?"
Under Section 90G of the Family Law Act, each
party is required to receive independent legal
advice before the agreeemnt becomes binding.
So apart from it being a requirement of the
law it is also a safety measure. The solitcitors
in executing their duty will determine that,
number one, the party they are advising is
acting of their own free will and volition
- that there's no inference of interference
from a third party and that there's no duress
from the other party.
In addition the lawyer needs to establish
that the party they're providing the advice
to, understands that under the Family Law
Act they have certain rights and by entering
into this agreement there may be certain rights that they give up.
So by making sure that your agreement complies with the law, you're also going to make sure
that you have a strong agreement that will
stand up to scrutiny should the need arise.
