Split Up

Legal and accounting firms throughout Australia could streamline their advice to clients seeking a divorce with a new expert program that "thinks" like Family Court judges.

The software package, appropriately called "Split up" was developed by Dr. John Zeleznikow and a team of researchers in La Trobe University's Department of Computer Science.

It is the first in the world designed to weigh up court judgments in previous cases to predict the way property would be divided for a particular divorce if it proceeded to court.

While anyone can get a divorce, the rules on the division of property are up to the judge. Deciding who gets what is a complex procedure based on future needs and past contributions.

Split Up, which can be installed on any PC, asks a sequence of relevant questions about the health, work history, children, property and future needs of the partners in a divorce. It then decides what percentage allocation to each partner would be in court and provides a series of arguments in favour of the decision.

Its major advantage, says Dr. Zeleznikow, is that people are less likely to litigate once they know the likely court outcome. "Let's say the program predicts that each partner will get $250 000 from a property settlement. If they go to court the cost to each could be $50 000 to litigate. This is a powerful incentive to negotiate instead."

The La Trobe research team has attracted international attention for its development of systems which can reason with both statutes and precedents. The systems are being used in fields which include legal aid and credit law.