The main reason is because it is a requirement of the Family Law Act. The advice ensures that parties understand what they agreeing to, their rights and obligations, and that they have not been influenced by the other party or any third party.
Getting the legal advice ensures that your agreement fulfils your intentions and offers you proper protection.
Transcript
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 agreement becomes binding.
So apart from it being a requirement of the law it is also a safety measure. The solicitors 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.