Live Webinar: When Coercive Control meets Family Law: The Responsibilities of Legal Practitioners

Domestic violence comes in many forms, including the growing recognition of coercive control. This session will explore the nature of coercive control, its criminalisation in some jurisdictions and the role family law practitioners need to play in its identification and relevance to their clients’ respective family law dispute, including:

• The origin and meaning of “coercive control” and identifying relevant behaviours
• State legislation and coercive control – definitions and offences
• How does the Family Law Act take into account of behaviour which can be described as coercive control?
• A discussion of indicative behaviours and examples, including the cases of Hannah Clark and Preethi Reddy
• Is withholding a child from seeing the other parent coercive control? Carter & Wilson [2023] FedCFamC1A 9
• The intersection of family law and coercive control and the obligations of legal practitioners
• How the courts are dealing with coercive control, including The Lighthouse Project
• The role of the National Principles to Address Coercive Control in Family and Domestic Violence (Commonwealth) and potential federal and State legislative reforms
• The impact of coercive control in relation to property settlements as a result of recent reforms