Divorce Lawyer For Men

If you’re a man going through a divorce, it can seem like the deck is stacked against you. The process of divorce, property settlement, and child custody arrangements (if you have kids) can quickly become overwhelming and stressful, and it’s not strange to feel like you’re being treated unfairly.

Luckily, you don’t have to go through this alone. At O’Sullivan Legal, our expert divorce lawyers understand what you’re going through and can provide compassionate yet practical legal advice to help you get the best outcome.

From helping you prepare documents to representing you during negotiation with your former partner or even in the courtroom, we’ll have your back the whole way.

Contact our family law team to set up a confidential consultation so we can discuss your case and plan a path forward.

Why O’Sullivan Legal?

Expert Representation & Tailored Legal Services

At O’Sullivan Legal, you benefit from multiple decades of specialist family law knowledge used to produce positive outcomes for people in your situation. We appreciate that every divorce is unique and tailor our legal services to meet your needs.

Going to Court as a Last Resort

Nobody (especially the family court) wants you to have a dramatic courtroom battle with your former partner. It’s expensive, stressful, and leads to worse outcomes for all parties involved.

Thankfully, our family lawyers are specialists in collaborative divorce and resolve the vast majority of cases without our clients ever needing to physically attend a courtroom. However, if going to court is the only option, we will be fierce advocates for your interests.

Compassionate, Client-Centred Approach

The secret to our success at O’Sullivan Legal isn’t just in securing positive outcomes; it’s making our clients feel cared for and that they’re finally in control of a stressful and confusing time of their lives. Compassion and a genuine desire to help you successfully navigate your divorce underpin our legal services.

Understanding Family Law for Men

In divorces between men and women, the man typically moves out of the family home, and the woman gains primary custody of the children. This is why it’s common to perceive an unfair bias against men in the family law system.

However, there are factors that explain this, and it’s important to have a full understanding of how family law matters typically shake out between men and women.

Custody Arrangements

In Australian family law, custody arrangements are meant to be made with “the best interests of the child” as the only concern, and when the dispute reaches court, the judge will do their best to achieve this. Unfortunately for men, women are usually the primary caregivers before the divorce (for many reasons, for example, working arrangements). Therefore, it is usually determined that the child’s best interest is served by having their mother as the primary caregiver post-divorce.

As fathers normally work longer hours (in most cases), custody arrangements commonly involve the mother caring for the children during the week and the father on weekends (or every second weekend). Unfortunately, when the father agrees to this type of settlement, they are unaware that their child may want to spend the weekend with their friends, not their father.

This situation is amplified if the father has moved far from the mother. This has the potential ability to cause resentment toward the father. Luckily, a child custody lawyer can assist you in navigating complex parenting matters, ensuring you can spend more meaningful time with your children.

Property Settlement

Asset division is made in the interests of equity and fairness, with a range of factors taken into account, including contributions (paid and unpaid) to the family, the future earning potential of each spouse and any external support available (for example, if one spouse has wealthy parents who can financially support them).

The future earning potential of the other parent is particularly relevant, as this consideration explains the perception that women get an unfair advantage in property settlements. Because many women typically leave work to become full-time mothers, it is harder for them to re-enter the workforce after divorce, especially if they are also the primary caregivers of the children.

However, men are still entitled to seek a ‘just and equitable’ division of assets and need an experienced property settlement lawyer in their corner to help them get their fair share of the marital asset pool.

Emotional Challenges

As a man, society often expects you not to show any form of emotional weakness or express uncertainty about your situation. In divorce cases, it can be even harder to remain composed and think clearly when you feel shame for not maintaining the relationship or others assume automatically that you are to blame.

The truth is that even the most amicable divorce can be an emotionally taxing process for everyone involved. There’s no shame in admitting you’re feeling lost or disadvantaged, especially if your former partner has a family lawyer consulting them and you don’t.

At O’Sullivan Legal, our family lawyers will help you even the playing field and provide compassionate, non-judgemental support throughout your case. While our legal services are designed to provide an efficient pathway to your best outcome, we are also people who can empathise with the difficulty of your situation. We can also help confidentially connect you with mental health resources if extra support is needed.

Why You Need a Family Lawyer

If you’re still considering whether you need to contact a divorce lawyer, we cannot stress enough the importance of securing independent legal representation in family law cases. In most cases, divorce is rarely as simple as signing a document and parting ways; there are several matters that need to be addressed satisfactorily for the court.

In particular, settling matters regarding responsibility for children and the split of the asset pool requires the expertise of a family law specialist. The way the court interprets these matters is necessarily complex, and if your former partner has a lawyer, you’ll essentially be at their mercy throughout the process.

Thankfully, securing affordable and effective legal representation is easy with O’Sullivan Legal. Our principal lawyer, Ben O’Sullivan, is a highly experienced divorce lawyer for men who will fight hard to get you your fair share of both assets and custody.

If you have any further questions or would like to get an experienced divorce lawyer on your side, please feel free to call us on (02) 8114 4511 or contact us online.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who loses the most in a divorce?

In Australian family law, there are no winners or losers when it comes to divorce. The family law system and the Family Law Act are designed to help married couples split in the fairest way possible.

What are the divorce rights for men in Australia?

There are no specific divorce rights for men or women in Australia; the family law system is not concerned with the sex or gender of married couples. When deciding on family law matters, the court is only concerned with the financial and non-financial contributions each party made to the marriage and what parenting arrangements are in the children’s best interests.