The Family Court & The Federal Court Magistrate are the engine of the judicial system and most likely to have a significant impact on the lives of many Aussies, especially children. Only two years ago, the Court's workload was increased by giving it responsibility for de facto couples as well.
Recent Federal budget funding cuts to both the Family Court and Family Relationship have increased the stress on many people who are going through relationship breakdown.
Furthermore, the Sydney Registry of the Family Court has recently announced a new program whereby it will allocate only one judge on seven days per month to hear urgent applications. Apparently, the Court will list only six urgent circumstances on each of those seven days. In other words, in Sydney the Family Court only has capacity to deal with a maximum of 42 urgent applications each month.
The impact of these changes is already being felt by the people in the system who are going through the emotional stress of relationship breakdown. Conditions that the court says should take 12 months to finish, now take 18 months to two years or more. During that time, the separated couple cannot get on with their lives, their children do not know where they will be living, and legal costs keep mounting.
An article published by the Brisbane times on December 2, 2011 highlights the struggling and overloaded family court system in Brisbane.
Brisbane's 10 federal magistrates are drowning in family disputes, with the number of cases growing by 9.3 per cent, and the number yet to be finalised swelling by 21 per cent, Australia-wide.
Brisbane is regarded as one of Australia's busiest federal court registries.
As an example, in Brisbane on Tuesday, each federal magistrate working in "duty week" had less than 10 minutes to make a decision on each of the 36 family law issues listed before him or her that day.
A federal magistrate is in court between 9.30am and 1pm, then from 2.15pm to 4.30pm, a total of 345 minutes.
Even back to back, that means a decision on a family law issue every 9.58 minutes, each day for the entire week.
According to the Federal Magistrates Court Annual Report, the family law workload of the Court continued to increase, representing 93 per cent of all applications (84 094) filed in the Court (this compares to 92.5 per cent in 2009–10 and 92.39 per cent in 2008–09).
The Court now deals with 86 per cent of all federal family law matters filed (excluding Western Australian family law matters).
This compares to 82 per cent in 2009–10 and 81 per cent in 2008–09.The de facto property jurisdiction has increased, with 810 applications having been filed in the Court during the reporting year (this compares with 452 during 2009–10).
Final Orders applications - 17515
Application in a Case (Interim) - 19,612
Divorce Orders applications -44 964
Other applications – 20032
Deborah Awyzio from D A Family Lawyers Brisbane and the president of the Queensland Family Law Practitioners, told the Brisbane Times that workload on Brisbane's federal magistrates was affecting families.
"I think people who are appearing in the federal magistrates court say, 'I am just in this system, I am just one of many people just waiting to get a result'," Ms Awyzio said.
"And because of the workload that the federal magistrates court has to get through, some people do have the perception that they are not being given justice.
"That their case is not being given the time it needs to make a proper decision."
Ms Awyzio said it was common in Brisbane for each federal magistrate to have 25 matters listed before them during a "duty week", giving them 13.8 minutes to hear and make a decision.
She said there were other signs that Brisbane's federal magistrates court, which deals with more than 95 per cent of the basic family law disputes, was overloaded.
She estimated in more than 10 per cent of decisions from both the family law court and the federal magistrates court in Brisbane, people were waiting for up to 12 months for a written judgment.
"I would say it is more than two or three, it is probably more than 10 per cent," she said.
She said the delays affected families.
"A lot of the times, circumstances have changed since the conclusion of the trial and the delivering of the judgment," Ms Awyzio said.
"They might be in new relationships, or they have a new job, or they want to live somewhere different.
"So that has a major impact."
Real life stories like the Harbour Bridge protest: who is Mick? the
Custody dispute led to murders, suicide: police were linked to a family law dispute.
Recent Federal budget funding cuts to both the Family Court and Family Relationship have increased the stress on many people who are going through relationship breakdown.
Furthermore, the Sydney Registry of the Family Court has recently announced a new program whereby it will allocate only one judge on seven days per month to hear urgent applications. Apparently, the Court will list only six urgent circumstances on each of those seven days. In other words, in Sydney the Family Court only has capacity to deal with a maximum of 42 urgent applications each month.
The impact of these changes is already being felt by the people in the system who are going through the emotional stress of relationship breakdown. Conditions that the court says should take 12 months to finish, now take 18 months to two years or more. During that time, the separated couple cannot get on with their lives, their children do not know where they will be living, and legal costs keep mounting.
An article published by the Brisbane times on December 2, 2011 highlights the struggling and overloaded family court system in Brisbane.
Brisbane's 10 federal magistrates are drowning in family disputes, with the number of cases growing by 9.3 per cent, and the number yet to be finalised swelling by 21 per cent, Australia-wide.
Brisbane is regarded as one of Australia's busiest federal court registries.
As an example, in Brisbane on Tuesday, each federal magistrate working in "duty week" had less than 10 minutes to make a decision on each of the 36 family law issues listed before him or her that day.
A federal magistrate is in court between 9.30am and 1pm, then from 2.15pm to 4.30pm, a total of 345 minutes.
Even back to back, that means a decision on a family law issue every 9.58 minutes, each day for the entire week.
According to the Federal Magistrates Court Annual Report, the family law workload of the Court continued to increase, representing 93 per cent of all applications (84 094) filed in the Court (this compares to 92.5 per cent in 2009–10 and 92.39 per cent in 2008–09).
The Court now deals with 86 per cent of all federal family law matters filed (excluding Western Australian family law matters).
This compares to 82 per cent in 2009–10 and 81 per cent in 2008–09.The de facto property jurisdiction has increased, with 810 applications having been filed in the Court during the reporting year (this compares with 452 during 2009–10).
Final Orders applications - 17515
Application in a Case (Interim) - 19,612
Divorce Orders applications -44 964
Other applications – 20032
Deborah Awyzio from D A Family Lawyers Brisbane and the president of the Queensland Family Law Practitioners, told the Brisbane Times that workload on Brisbane's federal magistrates was affecting families.
"I think people who are appearing in the federal magistrates court say, 'I am just in this system, I am just one of many people just waiting to get a result'," Ms Awyzio said.
"And because of the workload that the federal magistrates court has to get through, some people do have the perception that they are not being given justice.
"That their case is not being given the time it needs to make a proper decision."
Ms Awyzio said it was common in Brisbane for each federal magistrate to have 25 matters listed before them during a "duty week", giving them 13.8 minutes to hear and make a decision.
She said there were other signs that Brisbane's federal magistrates court, which deals with more than 95 per cent of the basic family law disputes, was overloaded.
She estimated in more than 10 per cent of decisions from both the family law court and the federal magistrates court in Brisbane, people were waiting for up to 12 months for a written judgment.
"I would say it is more than two or three, it is probably more than 10 per cent," she said.
She said the delays affected families.
"A lot of the times, circumstances have changed since the conclusion of the trial and the delivering of the judgment," Ms Awyzio said.
"They might be in new relationships, or they have a new job, or they want to live somewhere different.
"So that has a major impact."
Real life stories like the Harbour Bridge protest: who is Mick? the
Custody dispute led to murders, suicide: police were linked to a family law dispute.
