Welcome and Introduction by Mr Michael Taussig, QC

I'd like to welcome all of you on behalf of Barker Gosling and the Leo Cussen Institute to the auspicious book launch of the 4th edition of the Family Court Practice Manual.

It was written by my partner and colleague and great friend, Peter Szabo.  Peter joined our firm 11 years ago but his and my relationship precedes that time.  He was the partner in charge of Family Law at Phillips Fox  (and I say that slowly and softly), and I was the partner in charge of Family Law at Barker Gosling. We were often opposed but I simply can't recall a case which ever went to trial, so even then I was a pushover.

And while we are on the P words:
P stands for Peter and it also stands for passion, persistence, precedents, PC’s and perspicacity. Peter is nothing if not passionate about his family, about the Essendon football club, about computers and about his work and not necessarily in that order.  When it's the footy season it's Essendon.  Peter is persistent.  He introduced information technology to our firm over much opposition.  He is persistent in writing books and papers and presenting seminars and wearing down the opposition.  He is persistent in training young lawyers and in representing his clients.

Precedents. He creates them, he pinches mine and he pinches others in our department, he badgers us to use them and scolds us when we don't.  PC’s:  He ensures that the firm has a PC  on every desk.   He has introduced us all to the wonders of e-mail and internet and websites and lap tops and for somebody that has been practicing as long as me who doesn’t see anything wrong with manual typewriters ... He demands in the nicest possible way that everybody uses the available technology - and now!

Perspicacity: He foresaw the technological and educational opportunities and the marketing opportunities well before they became buzz words.

You may or may not know that he was the founding chairman of the Advisory Committee to the Law Institute of Victoria's Accreditation Board.

The first edition of his practice manual was published before he became a partner at Barker Gosling,  and has progressed in size and content ever since to become this marvellous product we welcome here today.  He is also responsible for the publication which appeared in conference satchels which is called “Tax and Family Law, The Difference Between Hacking and Carving".  I initially thought it was a cookbook, but not so when I looked inside.

There is another P which does not epitomise Peter and that is patience.  Something has to be happening all the time and immediately, or sooner.  It is really constructive.  However,  whenever the rules or forms or the case management guidelines changed while writing this manual -  God help us! He was not particularly nice then but that is really the one fear all authors have. You have to have a certain amount of patience to write an up to date book and valuable publication.

My partner, Michael Lefebvre, gave me some more P words, and they were: practical, patient, particular, proud and a parent.

This is an amazing work and I lift my hat to a great man and a great family lawyer.  He really is a legend and I wish him and his publication and  the Leo Cussen Institute the best of success in tonight’s launch.

But that is enough from me.  It really is my great pleasure to introduce the Honourable Chief Justice of the Family Court to make a short address.
 

Launch Address by The Honourable Chief Justice Alistair Nicholson

To be reproduced when formal permission is given to do so.

Author’s Reply  - by Mr Peter Szabo

Interesting isn't it how all the people doing things in the court are Essendon supportors . Thank you Justice Kay.  Thank you, Judge, for those kind words and ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here.

It was in 1976 that the family law act started.  More importantly, I started my articles that year. I was supposed to do articles in a small firm in Fitzroy and didnÌt take up that job.  It didn’t worry me too much that my principal  was not going to pay me the right amount, but it was most troubling that he wanted me to have a hair cut. That was going to  take another 18  years,  and my wife Rita to achieve. So I headed off to Echuca.

Day one. Three hours into my Articles the boss said: “There is a bloke down stairs, wants a divorce. Go and see him. I haven’t a clue about this new Act. You’re on”. So there I was – he wanted custody of his children and I succeeded.  I will not ruin this story by telling you it was uncontested!  But I could see my career in Family Law.  So I went down and met the local clerk of courts.  We worked on  the manual that the Government had produced, and we started to work out the forms.  I got to the then Form 19 and I thought: “I could do something with this. So that Ìs how we started off.

At the end of my Articles – precisely one year, four months, three days and two hours later -  I headed back to Melbourne .  That is where my family and friends were and I managed to sway Michael Salter at Phillips Fox and Masel  to take on a first year lawyer as a specialist family lawyer. I thank you Jan Pannam  (now Judge of the Victorian County Court) for not taking that job and giving me my chance there.

The Family Court was in the same building - and promptly moved out. Undaunted,  I forged on,  with John Wilczek (now Family Court Judge) upstairs. He did not move out of the building.  We had some interesting discussions.  I used to go up  and visit him and saw his chess set, and his stamp collections and things like that and talked about Essendon too, and maybe three or four minutes on the client matter in question.

It was the end of that year that I started writing my first article on Section 87 agreements, and I used that article to approach the Leo Cussen Institute that year to become an instructor in Family Law.  I began instructing there in early 1978.  It was about that time too that I had a call from Mrs Harper, wanting to enforce orders against her husband and his company Ascot Investments. But that is another saga for another time.  Another saga started in 1981, when Ian Dunn rang to invite me to be the family law representative on a committee  to advise the Law institute of Victoria. The topic was specialisation. Again, a topic for another time.

Each year I would go along to lecture at Leo Cussen, and I would take my precedents along to give to the students. And every year I would find the person in charge of Family Law there would take my precedents out and give the students theirs instead. I figured out that if I wrote “the book” this could not happen. So I did, and that is how the ‘Blue Book’ first came into being. A copy is sitting up there for those of you who want to see the original, and the second edition followed, being the ‘Green Book’. Then came the third edition and , oh my God, it was loose leaf. You know what that means! Frequent updates.  And so we now have the fourth edition, and  following quickly (given the comments by the Chief Justice tonight),  a  fifth edition.

I am pleased to say that for all the problems that we may have with the simplified procedures, if nothing, it has ensured a consistent  national procedure.  I was most surprised, having sent proofs to interstate  practitioners interstate,  to  find them  coming  back with very few comments and differences. So I can say now that the manual is now a truly national book, although based on my Victorian experiences.   I am pleased to say also that apart from looking at the CD Rom version, more importantly, there will be  Internet updates.  I really do want you to get onto the Internet and tell me if  you find any differences.  There must be some interstate differences! When  you find them,  please tell me, so that I can put an  up date then and there on the Internet site.

For Family Lawyers, there are three internet sites to look at. The Family Court site, The Law Council of Australia and Barker Gosling of course. They are the important sites for family lawyers.

As a matter of philosophy, I must say that the main purpose of the book is to help get most of our routine matters finished quickly. I cannot finish my files until you are ready to finish them. I  like turning  my files over quickly, so that my clients retain some dignity,  and some money.

There are a few people I need to thank. First,  the Chief Justice for his kind words,  and Justice Linda Dessau for her foreword.  I particularly wanted Linda because she is very practical.  I  first met her at my cousin’s twenty first many years agoÖthe fact she is an Essendon  supporter  was not the real reason.

Thanks to Queenslanders  Warrick Jones, Murray Bucknall, and  Don Leembruggen. To John Barkus and Sue Pearson from New South Wales. John Barkus along with Diana Bryant , QC and I were the part of the Phillips Fox  national family law team back in the 80’s.  To David Burrell, Jill Miller and Celine McInerney in South Australia.

In Melbourne I had great help from Leanne Cain and Sally Nichols, and of course my colleagues at Barker Gosling.  My senior collegues there being  Debra Cherrie, and Michael Lefebvre. My team Laura Colla, Sally Baker and Tracy Smith. I thank also Li Ming "I see another book coming" Teh . She is pushing me about the  “Tax and Family Law Book” and hopefully that task  will be completed  early in the new year.  With this still in front of me,  I am not feeling too crash hot about a fifth edition, right now,  Judge!  I would also like to thank my secretary Karen Barty. When you are ringing me about the book and the  Rules, don’t ring me. Ring Karen. She knows them much better than you or I will ever know them.

I particularly want to thank Michael Taussig,  for his support and his friendship.  Who of you can boast having someone like him in the office next to you?  He is just fantastic. Thank you Michael and I mean that sincerely.

Finally – as with  the miracle of turning water into wine,  I save the best for last. My wife Rita. Thank you for your patience, and you can have the kitchen table back now.

Thank you all for being here.

Conclusion by Ms Lyn Slade

I won’t keep you very long.  My name is Lyn Slade.  I am the Director of Legal Professional Development at Leo Cussen Institute, and we are very proud to be the publishers of the fourth edition of this manual.

I will give you a little bit of a brief history of Peter’s book. In April 1985 we published the first edition of the manual.  It was an instant success and became our most successful publication – within six months we had run out of copies and were busy with the new second edition, and that was released in February 1986. A file note of ours in 1990 has the following comment. Peter has indicated that he will try to have the draft of the third edition to us by November, but also mentioned that the new baby Sophie, is cutting considerably into his sleep time so perhaps make that December. Well,  Sophie obviously had significant sleep problems because is wasn’ t until 1993 that  the third edition was published. and after two print runs it was decided that a fourth edition was required.

We are very pleased that Peter has chosen to publish his work with us.  Leo Cussen Institute is a non-profit organisation that was established in 1972 under an act of the Victorian Parliament, to provide continuing education for legal practitioners in Victoria and to perform certain functions in connection with legal education. We pride ourselves on the delivery of high quality continuing legal education and professional development programs and resources. Our publishing relationships over the years with Peter and others reflects the Institutes commitment to excellence in this area.

For those of you who are not familiar with the earlier editions, and as mentioned before, they are down there on the table, and it is interesting to see the progression. This new edition represents a major re-write, unlike previous editions which were limited to steps taken up to the conciliation stage.  This new edition is expanded to include material on the final hearing stage.  In addition it now contains check lists for divorce proceedings, financial matters, childrenÌs matters and interim applications, and the introduction to simplify the procedures has meant this edition as Peter said will be of use throughout Australia. Peter consulted considerably with the registries in each state to ensure that this was consistent. Furthermore, as Peter also mentioned, to update this manual we will be using the Internet, so watch out for all those updates.

Now a lot of people have contributed to the success of this project and we are indeed fortunate to have the support of the Family Court and in particular we thank the Chief Justice for launching this book. Thank you Judge.

We also thank Michael Taussig and the Barker Gosling team for their support throughout the project.

The Family Law Section of the Law Council of Australia has been generous in allowing us to reproduce their material, and we also thank the conference committee and in particular Michael Foster who has leant us his very practical support for the launch.

Our grateful thanks go to Justice Linda Dessau as well for writing the foreword, and she did that in record time.

Thanks also to Jenny Bright and Steve Bright who edited and designed the books and a big thank you to Li Ming Teh, Leo Cussens Publications Co-Ordinator who has done an absolutely fabulous job as the projects managing editor.  Li Ming’s job was made easier by the great support of our Legal Professional Development Department at Leo Cussen, and finally I would like to thank Peter Szabo the author.

Peter is to be commended for his careful analysis and presentation of the practical aspects of this area of law, I commend this valuable resource to every family practitioner. Thank you Peter.