Parents paying a crushing price to protect their children from abuse

June 13, 2026 — 6:00am

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Legal fees for family law proceedings in Australia are prohibitively expensive. Lawyers start at upwards of $350 an hour, plus GST; some charge $1000 per hour or more. Costs can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But some parents have no option but to try to find that money – sometimes by selling their homes, or digging into their super. These could be parents who are struggling with an abusive ex-partner, and get to the point at which seeking an order from the Federal Circuit and Family Court becomes the best way to protect themselves and their children. Or they could be dragged to court by an abusive ex, who weaponises the court system to harm them financially and emotionally.

As the Herald’s Michaela Whitbourn reports today, the proportion of court cases involving alleged family violence has increased from 80 per cent to 86........

© The Sydney Morning Herald