Manby and Scott Lawyers was a law firm which operated from 2004 until 2025. The firm practised solely in child support law and was involved in a number of significant, precedent making court cases during that time.
In 2025 the projected legal costs for one of the firm’s average cases in the Family Court reached $100,000 for the first time. The average time taken to reach trial was nearly 3 years.
A new way had to be found to solve clients’ child support issues outside of the expensive litigation or traditional lawyer path.
In 2025 Manby and Scott Lawyers shut down. In its place Simon Bacon, formally special counsel at Manby and Scott Lawyers commenced Manby and Scott Child Support Advisory Services (Manby and Scott).
Manby and Scott is not a law firm. It is a child support consultancy firm which guides its clients through the web of administrative avenues which exist to solve child support problems outside of the court system. Such avenues include the binding child support agreement process, the Child Support Agency’s own internal review process, the CDDA scheme, the ART, even VCAT can be invoked to solve child support issues in some cases.
If there is a solution to be found for a client’s child support difficulties (and there almost always is), Manby and Scott will find it. Manby and Scott will generally do this without needing to litigate in the (ruinously expensive) court system or otherwise engaging a lawyer. If a lawyer is required in the case though (and, sometimes it is), Manby and Scott will assist the client to appoint one with some proper level of knowledge in the jurisdiction and then manage that lawyer’s engagement so as to ensure the client’s interests are protected.
Manby and Scott’s managing partner is Simon Bacon. Simon remains on the High Court’s Register of Practitioners but is no longer a practising barrister and solicitor. He ceased that in 2025. Before ceasing legal practise Simon had 35 years’ experience as a child support lawyer. He was special counsel at Manby and Scott Lawyers. He is a published text book writer on child support law and has had no fewer than 8 peer reviewed articles on child support published in the Family Law Review. He appeared as counsel regularly in the Family Court, including in the Full Court of the Family Court. Simon’s knowledge of the child support system is second to none.
