Immediate wrap-around response

Ivy was a mother of a young child who experienced substantial family violence during a short two-year marriage including strangulation while pregnant, other physical abuse, emotional and psychological abuse and financial abuse from her husband and the paternal family.

She was under strict control and wasn’t allowed out of the home on her own, before escaping to a women’s refuge when heavily pregnant and then giving birth. Ivy did not speak any English and was incredibly isolated and financially destitute, while her husband owned significant assets but was able to limit his child support.

The husband showed no interest in the child but would not consent to the child having Australian citizenship or an Australian passport or being able to travel overseas to visit the mother’s family, which we alleged was a continuation of coercive control.

FASS lawyers assisted Ivy to initiate both parenting and property proceedings with the assistance of interpreters, and obtained interim orders for the child to be registered as an Australian citizen and obtain an Australian passport without the father’s consent, as well as interim property orders for financial disclosure. The FASS lawyer then made a facilitated referral to another lawyer who obtained a grant of legal aid to enable them to continue to represent Ivy.