It has been a busy start to the year for us at Hartley Healy in 2014.
We are very pleased at the moment to have a very established and capable team. Besides myself and Joe Healy, we now have three other senior associates who are all accredited specialists.
Beata Leszczuk, Tarah Tosh and Debra Effeney are three outstanding lawyers who have a high degree of skill and expertise. Not only are they passionate for their clients, but they are detailed lawyers who know the importance of preparation and detail in work that they do for their clients. They are excellent financial lawyers and understand complex financial matters.
We also have a team of young lawyers who also show enormous promise but most importantly, are lawyers who don’t work 9-5 and are committed to their clients and work closely with myself and Joe or the senior associates to achieve cost effective outcomes for their clients.
The new year has certainly been busy in relation to family law. We have had several new important decisions from the Family Court.
At Hartley Healy, we try to constantly stay on top of the law for our clients. As family law specialists, it is important that we do that so that we can provide the best advices possible having regard to the current status of the law which unfortunately seems to change much too readily. I am also pleased that we have managed to settle a number of larger cases in the early part of this year. It is never fun going to Trial but sometimes (due to the complexity of the matters in dispute or the unreasonableness of one party or the other) some matters seem inevitably headed to Trial.
Our relationship with our client tends to strain the longer a matter goes on. It is only natural. Clients spend enormous amounts of money going to Trial in the Family Court. Even the best lawyers around Brisbane have trouble maintaining strong relationships with their clients when they have to dig deep into their pockets every week.
I used to judge my successes in family law in the earlier years by how many Trials I had and how often I was in Court. Now it is totally the opposite.
This year I have only been to Court twice. I think it has been a very successful year so far.