Charlie Belperio

Lawyer, Mediator, and Collaborative Practitioner

Phone: 08 8212 1322
Email: cvb@bc-lawyers.com.au

Areas of Practise

Charlie has had extensive  experience, since being admitted as a lawyer in 1990, with the law (and clients' needs) relating  to  businesses, property, contracts, franchises, family law, wills and estates , and dispute resolution/management.

Core Values/ Professional Approach

A commitment to providing sensible, cost effective and  practical solutions to client's needs is the main guiding principle in Charlie's approach to the provision of legal services. Continued commitment to clients, their families,businesses and well-being, have led Charlie to offer after hours and weekend appointments as required, presenting seminars to client organisations,and approaching clients needs holistically.

 Belperio Clark  and Charlie's core principles include respect, empathy, a commitment to clients, professionalism, and sensible understandable advice. Prevention/ minimisation  of legal concerns through experienced, sensible and understandable advice is  the objective.

Life Experience

Life, the law, and client's needs do not operate in a vacuum- extensive personal and professional experience and understanding all contribute to better assisting clients.

Born 1963 in Adelaide SA to a large and extended immigrant family Charlie's early experiences included working  on the family market garden, and enjoying the diversity of both  Italian and Australian cultures.  He draws on  all those life experiences together with  those of being a parent to 3 children (including teenagers!), juggling family and work, being a spouse to wife Marisa since 1989, business proprietor, and many years spent in the hospitality industry (whilst studying)  in  a practical and common sense approach to  helping clients.  .

Up to Date Knowledge

With ever changing laws, Charlie has remained committed to ongoing professional development including the investment of significant time, resources and expense towards updating and maintaining technical expertise and knowledge. This includes maintaining membership of the following professional bodies including maintaining strict compliance with applicable professional requirements set by them:

-The Law Society of South Australia ( committee member)

-The Law Council of Australia (including its Family Law Section)

-The Tax Institute of Australia (TIA)

-Leading Edge Alternative Dispute Resolution (LEADR) ( state executive member)

-Chartered Institute of Arbitrators

-International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP) (committee member)

-Global Collaborative Law Council Inc

-Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP)

He is a regular attendee of professional development sessions offered by  the above and also has delivered presentations to numerous organisations and groups. 

Minimising Cost (Emotional, Financial,etc) of Disputes

The cost (both financial and emotional), distraction from business and personal affairs, uncertainty and delay caused by the court process are significant. Very few court resolved matters represent a satisfactory outcome for the parties involved. Accordingly, one of Charlie's main interests is exploring realistic and sensible alternatives to the court process.

Appropriate and sensible dispute resolution and management on behalf of clients is always very important . This includes assisting clients to properly assess options ( negotiations, mediation, expert determination, arbitration,  Collaborative Law  or court etc).

Each matter and client will have unique needs. Charlie's extensive experience will assist clients be fully informed of the options available, risks and benefits, costs, timings and other relevant factors. Where possible - court should only be pursued if other sensible options have failed. Of course court may be necessary in certain circumstances.

What is Collaborative Law?

Collaborative Law is a resolution focussed process of dispute resolution in which clients and their lawyers commit to meet and negotiate their dispute without the threat of Court. If a party wants to go to Court after agreeing to conduct the matter collaboratively,  the collaborative lawyers involved  are disqualified from acting in the court action. This means that the lawyers acting in a collaborative matter are committed to negotiating a sensible settlement. The negotiations are conducted in good faith, and the parties are set up so that they maintain the best chance of being able to co-parent, work together or have a reasonable and respectful relationship into the future. This also normally minimises the cost ($, emotional etc), delay, and collateral damage of disputes.

Charlie was one of the pioneers of this approach in SA.

For further information re this please refer to our web page Collaborative Law 

Personal Interests

Charlie's interests include sport, food food and food ( cooking/experimenting - but mainly eating), travel and camping, current affairs and attempting to retain his hearing despite the noise produced by his three sons!