Kiwilaw Advocates Ltd - Hamilton

 

A strength-based team practice, helping you get the best outcome for your children

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Useful links and resources

SEPARATED?   WITH CHILDREN?

Focus on fairness

Kiwilaw Advocates Ltd is a family-law practice with child-focused experience.

Yes, we can help you fight for your rights in the Family Court. Yes, we can help you fight for your children. We can help you vigorously defend proceedings that someone else has brought against you.

If fighting is necessary. As a last resort.

However...

We prefer to help you identify options that will work best for your children, and to try to reach a fair, reasonable and safe outcome without having to fight.

The Family Court can help to work these things out.  Or you may get things resolved without needing the Court’s intervention. We can help you do this.

We can also

We may also invite you to watch a DVD at our media centre (no charge), work through a parenting-plan booklet in your own time (no charge), or lend you a book about helping children through separation (no charge except a refundable deposit).

Different situations need different approaches. One size does not fit all. Do give us a call.

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Do you need help with these questions?  Talk to us today.

Can the Family Court get your children back, if your ex has taken them?

Are your children being harmed by separation?

Is it better for your kids, if they don’t see you again?

Or is it better for them, if they live with you and don’t see their other parent?

How much time should they spend with you? How much with the other parent? What about grandparents? Other family?

Does it matter whether they stay at the same school?

How can you keep them safe?

Are you safe?

Does that bruising, or that behaviour, mean the child has been abused?

Can you reduce your child’s anxiety?

Should you move out of town, or out of New Zealand?

What legal arrangements do you need to make about your children’s care?

Does the other parent’s lifestyle create real risks for the children? (Does yours?)

Are you able to put your emotions to one side and make a plan for your children?

Why should you anyway?

What say should your children have?

What options are possible?

If you agree on a parenting plan, can it be enforced? Can it be changed later?

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Our services include...

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Initial cost

Initial consultation and advice (up to 1½ hours): $80-$280 (incl GST). Further work incurs additional fees. Full fee information provided at initial consultation. Fees depend on complexity of issues plus time spent. No charge for resource information. Legal-aid eligibility explained without charge.

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Who’s who at Kiwilaw?

Annette               Cheryl                   Romy                    Rose                      Rupert

Annette Bostock-Young

Diploma in Child Protection Studies

Specialist paralegal and family advocate, employed by the company. Not a lawyer. Also provides administrative support.

Annette’s expertise is in child development, child protection, negotiation of parenting plans, victim support, effects of sexual abuse, and recovery from family violence. She is passionately committed to helping families provide the emotional care and stability that every child is entitled to.  She can help to sort out a situation where an agreement has gone wrong. She can also help clients and their children to access specialist support.

Email: kiwilaw.annette@gmail.com

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Cheryl Simes

MA (Hons), LLB (Hons) Cert in Quality Assurance

 

Owner and director of the company. A lawyer, employed by the company as a barrister. More precisely, a lawyer who is practising on her own account as a barrister sole (which means she is focusing only on Court work and related advice, does not have a trust account, does not do conveyancing or transactional work, and by current Law Society rules is required to be instructed through a solicitor).

Cheryl’s expertise is in legal analysis and practice development. Law is her second career and she was the top student in her year at Waikato Law School. For her, the core focus is on helping people to use the law to resist bullying and wrongdoing, to understand the effects on children of emotional and physical harm, and to identify options that can help clients and their children make a new start.

Email: kiwilaw.cheryl@gmail.com

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Romy Lewitzki

LLB

A lawyer, employed by the company as a barrister. Romy is also close to finishing the Certificate in Child Protection Studies.

Romy’s expertise is in advising and representing clients in parenting, family violence, and child-protection matters. Her priority is to help protect clients and their children from physical, sexual or emotional harm. This may involve getting help for parents and children who are at risk. It also involves helping parents identify workable options that provide security for the children and avoid the need for Court battles.

Email: kiwilaw.romy@gmail.com

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Rose Theunisz

BSc

Education advocate, employed by the company. Not a lawyer. Also provides administrative support.

Rose’s expertise is in practical parenting, and in liaison and negotiation with schools if there are problems with a child’s progress or behaviour. She insists, adamantly, that the most important priority is whatever is best for the child.  She can help adults understand that it is not so important whether they like the arrangements: ‘What is important is that it is fair and reasonable.’

Email: kiwilaw.rose@gmail.com

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And then there’s...

Rupert

Cheryl’s faithful herd guardian who prefers to be at the office rather than at home.

Breed: maremma – originating from the Italian mountains, where these dogs traditionally guard flocks of sheep against wolves and bears, without the shepherd being present.

A gentle know-it-all who can be tough if necessary.

Email kiwilaw.rupert@gmail.com (Rupert has an unpaid secretary)

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Useful links and resources

(This section will be developed more fully as time permits.)

Many of these items are also available in hard copy at our offices. Call in and have a look. We can also send you copies (in return for a donation towards postage and/or Rupert’s upkeep).

 

General information is intended to be introductory only. It is not a substitute for getting your own legal advice, whether from us or from someone else.

 

Helping children handle separation

Counselling referrals through the Family Court

Mediation through the Family Court

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Helping children handle separation

Learn from other people’s mistakes. Find out the do’s and don’ts. Then follow the advice. Get help if necessary. Childhood passes too quickly, to waste it on parental upheaval.

Recommended resources:

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Counselling referrals through the Family Court

The Court will pay for up to 6 counselling sessions. The counselling itself is done by independent providers, such as Relationship Services. The counsellors tell the Court whether agreement has been reached. They do not disclose anything else that has been said during counselling. Whatever is said during counselling is strictly confidential. It may not be quoted in Court or put into evidence.

You can get counselling without starting Court proceedings. The Court will also usually refer people to counselling if they start Court proceedings without trying counselling first.

If parents reach agreement during counselling, they can decide whether to ask the Family Court to make parenting orders based on that agreement. Or they may prefer to leave it as a less formal agreement. 

There are 5 main types of counselling referral available through the Family Court:

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Mediation through the Family Court

Mediation is a dispute-resolution process in which a third party (Judge or private mediator) assists separated parents to negotiate an agreed outcome. The parents – not their lawyers –have most of the say at the mediation. The third party does not make a decision. The decisions, if any, are made by the parents. What is said at mediation is strictly confidential. It may not be quoted in Court or put into evidence.

There are 2 types of mediation available through the Family Court:

Unlike counselling, the Court will not provide or pay for mediation unless there are Court proceedings under way. 

However, private mediation can also be arranged without any involvement of the Family Court. In that case, the mediator’s fees need to be paid privately by the participants.

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Contact us

Kiwilaw Advocates Ltd

Phone 07 839 0911

Fax 07 839 4070

Mobile/text 021 701 838 or 021 022 77107

P O Box 4265, Hamilton East, Hamilton 3247

Offices at 13 Liverpool Street, Hamilton (Presbyterian Opportunity Shop building)

Office email: kiwilawhamilton@gmail.com

 

This website is an interim version (May 2010). Once we have assessed what information is useful and how we can do things better, a ‘proper’ website will be developed. In the meantime, updated interim versions will be uploaded reasonably frequently.

 

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