Family Court tinkering a risky business
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Attorney-General Christian Porter.
Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
The Attorney-General, Christian Porter, has rushed in where his predecessors have feared – or tried and failed – to tread. In merging the Family Court with the Federal Circuit Court he is hoping to streamline the way family law operates.
His changes are being sold as offering an improved service – fewer delays and less legal bureaucracy, mainly – for litigants. If the legislation enacting the changes can achieve that, many of those who end up in the family court will thank him. But critics have pointed out shortcomings in what he is proposing and their criticisms deserve a hearing.
The changes will affect tens of thousands of people each year. About 47,000 divorces are granted each year; and many thousands more de facto relationships also end in the courts. About 106,000 applications were made in 2016-17 for family law determinations.
The two courts being merged deal with separate aspects of family law. The problem is that if a case now being heard in one court raises issues which can only be decided in the other, litigants must begin the process all over again, and the two courts have different procedures.
According to the minister, as things stand this irksome legal labyrinth must be negotiated each year by about 1200 families – parents, children – who are already going through one of life’s most stressful and emotionally difficult experiences, a process often complicated by violence, child abuse and extreme forms of manipulation. If the complexity can be reduced with a single point of entry into the system, as is promised, that would undoubtedly be a major reform. However this is not the first time the merger has been proposed and, in the past, the sticking point has been the standardisation of court procedures. Let us hope that problem will now be solved – because if it remains the project will fail.
Article source: http://smh.com.au/queensland/massive-workshop-fire-sparks-evacuations-in-brisbane-s-north-20170924-p4yw2p.html
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