Government announces Federal Court reforms

31 May 2018

Government announces Federal Court reforms

Federal Member for Wide Bay, Llew O’Brien has welcomed the announcement of the Coalition Government’s reforms in the federal court system which will help families save time and costs in family law disputes

A single new Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (FCFCA) will be established from 1 January, 2019 through the amalgamation of the existing Federal Circuit Court of Australia and the Family Court of Australia.

A new Family Law Appeal Division in the Federal Court of Australia will also be established to hear all appeals in family law matters from the newly created FCFCA.

“This single new court will help families, including those in Wide Bay, to resolve their disputes faster by improving the efficiency of the existing split family law system; reducing the backlog of matters before the family law courts; and, and driving faster, cheaper and more consistent dispute resolution,” Mr O’Brien said.

“Our community, like all others around Australia includes families who experience one of the most traumatic periods of peoples’ lives – the breakdown of a relationship.”

“These reforms are focused on ensuring that the legal systems we have in place to help families deal with relationship breakdown, don’t add to the trauma by contributing to delays and unreasonable expenses in resolving matters, particularly issues around children.

“The new FCFCA will have one single point of entry for all federal family law matters to provide a consistent pathway for Australian families needing to have their family law disputes dealt with by court proceedings.

“Families will have one new court with one set of new rules, procedures and practices designed to ensure that their disputes will be dealt with by the FCFCA in the most timely, informed and cost effective manner possible.

“It’s estimated that these reforms will improve the efficiency of the federal family law system by up to a third, with the potential in time to allow up to an extra 8,000 cases to be resolved each and every year,” Mr O’Brien said.

Further information about the reforms is available at: www.ag.gov.au
ENDS