By the time of the final Federal Circuit and Family Court hearing in her case, the financial strain on Eloise was so severe she had to access her superannuation on compassionate grounds to prevent the forced sale of her home to cover legal bills.
“Thirty years of working; I now have zero super,” Eloise said. “This is what happens to so many women my age that have gone through this.
“I don’t regret spending half a million dollars protecting my children … but I will be paying that price for the rest of my life. I will probably work until the day I die.”
Eloise said the system was “absolutely not workable, but there isn’t any other choice”.
“It is exhausting to have to keep proving abuse over and over again. The secondary trauma of family court proceedings takes a huge emotional and financial toll.”
Eloise’s lawyer, whom the Herald has chosen not to name to avoid indirectly identifying her client, said there was a massive gap between people who don’t qualify for legal aid and people who can actually afford legal fees.
“The system is really broken,” she said.
Steve Frost, founder of the not-for-profit Horizons Family Law Centre in Sydney, estimated that “about 70 to 80 per cent of the population … couldn’t afford a private lawyer to run a full family law case”.
“Under current funding arrangements, most people in paid employment wouldn’t qualify for legal aid,” he said. Nor would those with “any form of savings, even if they’re modest”. Home-owners, even with a mortgage, were also mostly ruled out.
“It’s normal people,” Frost said. “When we first set up [in 2005], we used to talk about our service being for ‘ladies and tradies’.
“These days … huge numbers of the people contacting us are in white-collar jobs earning objectively good incomes but without the capacity to pay $330 an hour and upwards for a private solicitor.”
Frost’s centre, a registered charity, does not receive government grants and is funded by donations. Its service is not means tested, but it provides higher levels of help to people who don’t qualify for legal aid and who can’t afford a private lawyer, he said.
Litigation funding by private lenders is available in some family law cases involving property, rather than purely parenting matters. The loan is repaid from the eventual payout. But the interest rates are high.
In the case of amicable splits, Frost said the government-funded AI tool Amica, developed by National Legal Aid, provided guidance about likely court outcomes and generated legal documents for a relatively low cost.
The proportion of parenting cases in the Federal Circuit and Family Court alleging family violence increased from 80 per cent to 86 per cent over the past four years, according to its 2024-25 annual report.
Statistically, it is more common for women and their children to be the victims of family violence by a male partner, heightening the need for lawyers in parenting and property disputes.
National Legal Aid executive director Yvette D’Ath, a former Queensland attorney-general and justice minister, said it was clear the family law system was weaponised in some cases to further traumatise victims of domestic and family violence.
Jacqueline Minors, principal of Minors Family Law in Sydney, said she had seen an increase in the number of clients trying to act for themselves in court to reduce costs.
Ultimately, the cost of proceedings affected how parents could support their children financially in the future, she said.
Source: Family law fight: Women forced to ‘work until the day I die’ to afford court cases
Whether or not a Royal Commission is an answer or at least a good idea is a separate matter, however, suggestions about alternative ways to pay legal bills surely doesn’t come anywhere near addressing the problems! Why are the bills there in the first place – that is, why all the litigation? Secondly, why are the bills so high – I am not denying that lawyers are entitled to be paid, that is a given … however, why is there so much litigation/so many court etc appearances for each individual case? This is what is driving up the bills, surely? Thirdly, let’s look at what the cases entail: what are the major issues … for very likely it is issues revolving around children and violence/sexual abuse and exploitation etc and these cases should be addressed as promptly and completely as possible without being dragged out … There does appear to be a need for some clarity and clearness of focus in this area. It’s all gone on for too long …