6 Dec 2022
WADE v WADE [2022] NZHC 3254
- Citation
- [2022] NZHC 3254
- Court
- High Court
COCA establishes a comprehensive mandatory statutory regime for binding determinations in care of children matters and replaces the pre-existing law; as a result such disputes are not capable of being submitted to binding arbitration enforceable by the courts under the Arbitration Act 1996 s 10(1), and a Family Court had no power to make a final parenting order providing for binding arbitration; the Family Court correctly excluded the arbitration provision as invalid, and the appeal is dismissed.