Family Law
As family lawyers, Page Provan’s focus remains on identifying what our clients hope to achieve from our very first meeting. We work with you on a plan to reach a solution, quickly and cost-effectively.
Domestic Violence
At Page Provan, we have a reputation for being highly experienced domestic violence lawyers. Our Director, Stephen Page was responsible for adding sections to our domestic violence legislation to ensure kids were not witnesses in their parents’ domestic violence trials.
Fertility
We have advised clients about surrogacy, egg, sperm and embryo donation throughout Australia and 30 countries overseas. We deal with local, national and international surrogacy and donor issues week in, week out, and have unique contacts with lawyers and health professionals here and overseas.
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Fertility Lawyers Sydney
Fertility law is a specialist area of the law with few expert practitioners in Australia.
Around one in nine Australian couples of reproductive age experience fertility problems, split evenly between couples where the man’s sperm is the problem and couples where the woman’s reproductive system is the issue.
Fertility Lawyers Sydney has dedicated expertise in advising clients on fertility law issues, including surrogacy, egg, sperm and embryo donation throughout Australia and 30 international countries.
Clients seeking clear, honest and concise advice on fertility do so at a time when they are likely experiencing many emotional ups and downs. The quest to become parents can be a long, challenging and exhausting one for many couples.
Fertility Lawyers Sydney seeks to make the journey to parenthood as smooth and trouble-free as possible in an area of the law which can present many potential pitfalls and risks along the way.
How Fertility Lawyers Sydney can help you
Those seeking information on fertility can often be misled by material they find on the internet or advice provided by ‘experts’ who do not fully understand the Australian and international legal environment on this issue.
Sydney Fertility Lawyers is made up of experienced legal practitioners with years of experience advising people on this sometimes sensitive topic. We are considered one of the few fertility law specialists in Australia, based on our work helping clients with arrangements whether within an Australia state or territory, or made with someone in a foreign country.
Surrogacy
Surrogacy is one of our specialties. While surrogacy is legal throughout Australia provided it is not for commercial purposes, the surrogacy arrangement needs to be correctly drafted and formalised to ensure you are recognised as the parent and do not need to later fight for parental rights in the Family Court.
Fertility Lawyers Sydney has helped more than 1700 clients on their surrogacy journey, more than any other legal practice in Australia.
We provide up-to-the-minute advice on domestic surrogacy, whether traditional – where the surrogate mother conceives through her own eggs and sperm from an intended father or donor – or gestational surrogacy, where the surrogate carries an embryo created from an egg by the intended mother or a donor.
Donor agreements
Fertility Lawyers Sydney help couples who require an egg or sperm donor formulate an agreement with the donor. Although these agreements are not legally enforceable in Australia, they help establish and clarify the intentions of the people involved, which can be crucial in the event of a later legal dispute.
A donor of eggs or sperm may be contacted through a fertility clinic or be someone the people seeking the donation know personally. In either event, an agreement is advisable and should cover issues such as disclosures of health issues; whether the donor will be known to the child; what role the donor might play in the child’s life; how disagreements about future issues which might arise should be dealt with, among other matters.
International arrangements
At Fertility Lawyers Sydney we have particular speciality in international surrogacy and donor arrangements.
Such arrangements can be complex because of the intersection of international law treaties with Commonwealth and state laws in Australia.
It is an offence for Australians to make commercial surrogacy arrangements in foreign countries. The Surrogacy Act 2010 in NSW, for example, defines commercial surrogacy as ‘the provision of a fee, reward or other material benefit or advantage to a person for the person or another person’.
Furthermore, there is the requirement to apply for citizenship by descent or a permanent visa in order to bring the child to Australia.
A key challenge is that under the Family Law Act 1975, intended parents of children born to surrogates overseas do not have the automatic right to be recognised as legal parents.
A carer for a children born via international surrogacy may not, therefore:
- have the authority to make decisions about their child’s education and medical care;
- not be able to travel abroad with the child;
- face legal difficulties should they separate or divorce;
- face difficulties with issues of inheritance and pensions; and
- involve the surrogate in future decisions involving their child.
Sydney Fertility Lawyers can help prospective parents understand the complicated issues involved in international surrogacy arrangements. We have helped clients with their surrogacy journey in over 30 countries, from India to Brazil.
Why legal advice is needed
The legal environment for surrogacy and donor issues in Australia has been described as ‘a minefield’. Laws vary from state to state, while international arrangements must also consider the provisions of Commonwealth law and international human rights treaties.
Navigating this complex, overlapping legal picture can be lengthy and exhausting. Trusting your surrogacy or donor journey to proven, experienced legal practitioners such as Fertility Lawyers Sydney with a long, proud track record in this area of the law, is essential.
We can help smooth the way to make parenthood a reality because of our expertise and real-world experience in fertility law over many years.
We have a team of fertility lawyers who can assist you in Melbourne & Brisbane also in Australia.
Page Provan are privileged and honoured to help parents do the best they can by their children – whether it’s in their quest to become parents, or in separation issues such as dealing with their former partner as to where their children live and when children spend time with each of their parents.