The act supports the resolution of family law disputes outside of court by:
#*requiring lawyers to explain the different dispute resolution processes to their clients, under sections 4 and 8;#*requiring the people involved in a family law dispute to make full disclosure of the information necessary to resolve the dispute, under section 5, even when they're not in court;#*allowing parenting coordinators to be used to resolve disputes about parenting once a final order, award or agreement about children's parenting arrangements has been reached, under sections 15 to 19;#*including mediation and collaborative negotiation as dispute resolution processes to which the court can refer people, under sections 1 and 224;#*changing the rules about arbitration to better accommodate the arbitration of family law disputes, in sections 19.1 to 19.22; and,#*allowing the court to delay a proceeding while the parties attempt to resolve a family law dispute out of court, under section 223.
The act also allows the court to require the people involved in a court proceeding to try to resolve their dispute out of court, and to attend counselling if the court thinks that counselling would be helpful. Section 224 says that: