Family law · Melbourne

The file, not the performance.

Bramble Court is a small chambers in East Melbourne for parenting, property, and intervention-order work. We take the brief, we appear, we write the letter that has to be written.

Write to the clerk +61 3 9419 0140

Before the courts

Practice

Family law only. We appear in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, the Supreme Court of Victoria, and the Magistrates' Court.

Parenting

Live-with and time-with arrangements, interim and final, and the school-term calendar that decides them.

Property

Settlement and super splitting — the house, the business, and the fund nobody has looked at since the wedding.

Intervention orders

Applications and responses under the Family Protection Act, in the Magistrates' Court and on review.

Independent children's lawyer

We accept ICL appointments, and appear alongside the ICL where one is already appointed.

Appeals

Appeals from the Federal Circuit and Family Court — leave, error, and the practical question of what changes.

Advice on a file already in train

A second opinion on a matter that is already listed: what the orders should have said, and what to do next.

The bar

Counsel

Appearances, drafts, and advice — briefed through instructing solicitors, or directly where the rules allow.

Eleanor Vass

Called 2004 · Victorian Bar

Parenting trials and property settlement. Takes the long files, and the consent orders nobody else can settle.

Nicholas Perrin

Called 2011 · Victorian Bar

Intervention orders in the Magistrates' Court and the cross-applications that follow. Also takes ICL appointments.

Sophie Lindqvist

Called 2019 · Victorian Bar

Junior counsel on appeals from the Federal Circuit and Family Court, and advice on files already in train.

File notes

Matters

Four files from the last twelve months, noted the way the clerk notes them. Names and details removed.

Dark leather-bound law volumes on the chambers shelves

Live-with and time-with

Family report received in June; consent orders settled the week before the final day. The school place was preserved.

Instructions signed across a desk, pen in hand

Settlement and super splitting

The house sold in autumn. The fund was split by deed the Friday after, and the deed has not been troubled since.

A courthouse with a colonnade, seen from the footpath

Intervention order

Contested interim application, varied by consent at the second mention. No findings made, nothing admitted.

The chambers' old leather-bound ledger, closed on the table

Independent children's lawyer

Appointed for two children. Eleven months, one report, and a change of school in term three.

East Melbourne

Chambers

A first-floor set on George Street, ten minutes' call from the listings. The clerk keeps the diary; nobody else touches it.

Address: 12 George Street, East Melbourne VIC 3002
Clerk: On the desk 8:30–17:30. Briefs, returns and adjournments go through her.
Telephone: +61 3 9419 0140

Monday – Thursday 08:30–17:30

Friday 08:30–16:00

Duty list (on call) by clerk

Not a clinic. No walk-in counselling. If a matter is urgent and the desk is shut, call 1800 737 732 (1800RESPECT) or Victoria Legal Aid on 1300 792 387.

The ornate brass handle on the chambers' front door — The brass handle on the George Street door. Lift it and the clerk will answer.

Brief the clerk

Contact

Write to the clerk with the court, the next date, and what you need. If it can be done same-day, it will be.

+61 3 9419 0140

Clerk: On the desk 8:30–17:30, week-days.
Address: 12 George Street, East Melbourne VIC 3002
Monday – Thursday: 08:30–17:30
Friday: 08:30–16:00
Duty list: (on call) by clerk