Paul* had suffered a mental health disability due to an accident and later a relationship breakdown. He lived in the de facto property that was in an isolated rural area. He had no family or friends and had significant mental health challenges. He was unable to drive. This meant that he was not able to manage tasks needed to be able to provide instructions such as collate documents required for financial disclosure. He was also unable to attend to his own day to day needs such as cleaning the property (and acreage) in preparation for sale; managing to arrange for removal for his ex-partners belongings (or even being able to list what was there so that she could remove them herself). His mental health issues were significant (suicidal ideation, in patient treatment etc) and exacerbated by the relationship property matter.
We worked with him to:-
- Receive all of his relevant pieces of paper
- Work through these to determine relevance
- Provide advice in relation to appropriate property orders
- Arrange for an outreach service to support him to attend appointments and to the initial tidying up of the property
- Work with the real estate agent to determine what works needed to be undertaken prior to the property being listed for sale
- Assist him with negotiating orders by consent for the sale of the property
- Once the orders were made assist him with obtaining urgent support (in circumstances where the property was sold and he needed to vacate the property) to pack and remove his belongings and arrange for emergency supported accommodation for him so that the transfer of the property could occur
- Work with the conveyancer in relation to the sale process
- During this matter Paul* became acutely mentally unwell a number of times and required extensive support from the family law team to help him manage his anxiety around the legal processes and his concerns as to his perceptions as to financial abuse by his previous partner. This included several phone calls from Paul* when experiencing an acute mental health crisis and offering assistance over the phone whilst waiting for PACER or the ambulance to arrive.
- During the course of the matter the issue of Paul*s capacity to provide instructions was considered a number of times in conjunction with his treating mental health professionals.
A quote from Paul*
“Legal aid has been an indispensable support in my life, assisting with my family law matter. Due to my disability and financial situation, I would have been unable to adequately access justice without the assistance of legal aid. The complexity of my case required specialised legal expertise, and without this support, my access to justice would have been severely compromised.”
*not his real name