Kiwilaw Advocates
Ltd - Hamilton
A strength-based
team practice, helping you get the best outcome for your children
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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 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
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
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
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
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
And then there’s...
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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(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
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:
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:
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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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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