The lack of resources causing delays in the Family Court determinations is unacceptable.
Although not the fault of the Courts, justice delayed is justice denied…..
A couple of suggestions:
(1) Costs “follow the cause”. Too much time is wasted on “silly”applications, with no penalty given the no costs jurisdiction. Having a (rebuttable) presumption that costs follow the cause will prevent these applications wasting Court resources.
(2) Better defined and structured disclosure process – far too much costs, and Court time / resources are wasted addressing (often irrelevant) disclosure back and forth all the way to trial.
(3) A “no-order” threshold in children’s matters. That is no order is made unless it is (demonstrably) in a child’s best interests. Too many orders are made and used as weapons in the battle of family law, often resulting in sometimes lengthy litigation
(3) In WA, FVRO’s being deal with by the Family Court, and asking for the associated allocation of resources. Often proceedings in both jurisdictions with the same parties are related/overlap, or even have the same factual dispute being played out in 2 jurisdictions.
Not that I am a legislator, just my 2 cents from the “battle ground”, and having numerous client’s suffer at the delays / lack of resources to help resolve the growing number of Family Law disputes.
Justin Dorney
Holden Barlow Family Lawyers Perth