One of the central aims of the Family Court when it was set up in 1976 was to provide quick, informal and cheap resolution of disputes arising from the breakdown of marriage. The ideal has never been met and, indeed, seems further away as time goes on as the Family Court gets taken over more by legalism and adversary procedure.
Delays in the Family Court in Canberra are now longer than the national average. It now takes 76 weeks to get a child-related matter heard in the court’s Canberra registry. The national average is 72 weeks. This is a classic case of justice delayed is justice denied. By the time the 76 weeks has expired the circumstances surrounding the child would have changed to such an extent that the delay might result in a different outcome.
The solution is to provide more judges and more legal aid for more lawyers, as the Opposition urges. The judges and lawyers have proven incapable of getting parties to resolve disputes quickly, cheaply and informally. In fact, it seems the system encourages delay because delay is in the best interests of the party who is in possession of the property or the child. As the provision of legal aid grew since 1976 so did the delays.
It would be better to recognise that the adversary system of law is hopelessly unsuited to the resolution of family disputes. It exacerbates them.