Family Court: Lives on hold as some cases take two years to be finalised

FAMILIES are being forced to wait up to two years for their court cases to be finalised as overburdened judges struggle to deal with a “tsunami’’ of hearings.

Even urgent Family Court matters are taking up to six months to be heard amid a growing backlog of cases and a shortage of judges to hear them.

FAMILIES are being forced to wait up to two years for their court cases to be finalised as overburdened judges struggle to deal with a “tsunami’’ of hearings.

Even urgent Family Court matters are taking up to six months to be heard amid a growing backlog of cases and a shortage of judges to hear them.

The Federal Circuit Court — which deals with the majority of family law matters — is worst affected. While judges would ideally have 150 matters on their docket to finalise within six months, some are facing between 500 and 600.

According to Senate Estimates figures, the wait from lodgement to the first day of trial is 15 months. However, CEO of the Law Society of NSW Michael Tidball said that it could be far longer in some areas — particularly Sydney and Parramatta — and it was “an access to justice issue”, with more funding needed for additional judges.

Michael Tidball, chief executive of the Law Society of NSW / Picture: Amos Aikman

Watts McCray senior consultant Christopher Dunn said one of his biggest concerns for the Parramatta circuit was that urgent matters, once seen within two to three months, could now take six months, leaving families vulnerable.

“I see frustration and anger, disappointment at the fact their life is sort of in limbo,” he said.

“It promotes a climate in which family violence, if there is some, can escalate and if not before, it can engender it because frustrated people do silly things. Cases are getting harder and take more time and there are less judges — it is almost like a tsunami coming towards us.”

In Wollongong, a case involving children listed for mention in November last year was given a date for interim orders in April. Following that listing, the parties were given a mention date for March 2017.

Family lawyer Brett McGrath, who works in Wollongong, said the court was at “critical mass” and hearings were being triple-booked.

Despite servicing the Illawarra, South Coast and Macarthur regions, it has one judge who works three out of four weeks. One issue exacerbating the problem is judges not being replaced during extended leave or prior to retirement.

Work is instead delegated to current judges.

However, a spokeswoman for Attorney-General George Brandis argued both courts were adequately resourced.

“The Family Court and Federal Circuit Court currently have a full complement of judges. Unlike the situation in NSW and other states, it is not constitutionally possible to appoint an acting or temporary judge,” she said.