Generally speaking, conduct is not relevant to family law property settlements. However, domestic violence can have an influence on the property pool division. The relevant legal principles were established in Kennon v Kennon (1997). The Courts have some discretion to make an additional award to the party subjected to the abuse.
What is a Kennon claim?
In Kennon the wife claimed that she should receive an additional portion of the property pool because of the spousal violence during the relationship making contributions to the property pool much more difficult for her. The case established that it is necessary to provide evidence:
- to establish a course of violent conduct,
- to demonstrate the effect of the violence on the party’s ability to contribute to the pool,
- to enable the Court to quantify the effect of the violence on the party’s capacity to contribute.
This decision has received some criticism because of the evidential requirements. The more recent decision in Keating v Keating (2019) suggested that Kennon could be applied more broadly in future. In this case, the majority held that corroborative evidence was not required for domestic violence to be accepted. Moreover, the focus should be on the discernible impact of the violence on the victim rather than the lack of evidence allowing quantification of its effects. While it appears that Kennon remains good law, its guidelines are reserved for what the Full Court of the Family Court referred to as a ‘relatively narrow band of cases’.
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