Court resources

Family law in Australia is served by two Courts, the Family Court of Australia and the Federal Circuit Court.

The two Courts both have jurisdiction under the Family Law Act but matters are divided between them in accordance with a Protocol which essentially sees the more complex matters heard by the Family Court and the vast majority of matters heard by the Federal Circuit Court. According to the available data in 2013/2014 the Family Court received 2,923 Applications for Final Orders while in 2012/2013 the Federal Circuit Court received 17,363 Applications for Final Orders.

While there may be a division of work between the two Courts both Courts deal with incredibly important issues relating to the breakdown of a relationship or marriage, including who is to care for the children and how people are to divide their assets. Delays in having the Courts determine such matters has an impact on the lives of the parties, their children and everyone in their extended families and support network.

The Courts are facing something of a predicament with both Courts facing the retirement of many Judges. The Federal Circuit Court will have, over the next year, the departure of 12 - or around a quarter of its Judges.

The Chair of the Family Law Section of the Law Council of Australia, Rick O'Brien, has said "The family courts are genuinely in crisis, and with these retirements things are going to get worse."

Chief Judge of the Federal Circuit Court has previously stated that because of a lack of funding, under staffing and an increasing workload the Federal Circuit Court is already struggling to keep up with the cases coming before it. His Honour went on to say that the replacement of Judges was "critical in ensuring that families in distress are dealt with as quickly as possible."

The President of the Law Council of Australia said "failure to adequately resource the family law system by replacing judges promptly will have a snowballing effect, the social and economic cost of which will continue to be felt by the community for years to come."

A spokesman for the Federal Attorney-General told the SMH that "In the current economic climate all areas of government, including the courts, must look for ways to work more efficiently and effectively. The Attorney-General is carefully considering all available options for any administrative and structural reform to address long-term financial sustainability of the federal courts."

This is seemingly in opposition to the views expressed by the Law Council of Australia. Duncan McConnel, told the SMH "given the significant and often traumatic emotional and financial burden on separating families, and children, the government must commit to finding additional resources to address such delays. Such a commitment requires, at the minimum, that retiring judges are replaced promptly."