By Bianca Hall
Waiting times have been slashed in the Family Court in the past year, but dozens of families are still waiting more than six months for judges to resolve their cases.
Figures released to The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald under freedom of information laws show the court has dramatically improved the flow of cases under new Chief Justice Will Alstergren.
Family Court Chief Justice Will Alstergren is trying to reform the system.Credit: Eddie Jim
Before reforms were introduced to cut waiting times, one judge took a staggering 35 months to deliberate on a family law dispute, finally handing down their judgment last year.
But several families are still waiting for a judge to make a ruling on their custody or property dispute almost a year after their case was heard in court.
Dozens of families are still waiting more than six months for their cases to be resolved.
The figures represent a fraction of the time warring couples can spend in family law disputes; it can take many months to make it to court, and many more again for a case to be heard by a judge.
The court refused to disclose the names of the judges who take the longest to deliver judgments, citing privacy laws and the Family Law Act.
Last year, 12 families had been waiting more than a year for a judgment. Six families waited more than 18 months for a judge to decide their case, and one family was left without resolution for almost three years.
A spokeswoman for the court said since Chief Justice Alstergren's appointment to the court a year ago, he had led efforts to reduce backlogs and delays, including in the delivery of judgments.
"The Chief Justice is pleased to see a reduction in the number of outstanding judgments, which can be attributed to the hard work of the judges who have been supported by these various measures," she said.
Family law is the area of law more Australians will come into contact with than any other, but the Family Court has been beset by delays for years.
In a rare interview last month, Chief Justice Alstergren said the length of time families spent in the Family Court kept him up at night.
"There is no doubt the system is chronically suffering from a huge amount of work in backlogs and delays and those delays are unacceptable," he said.
Faced with yet another inquiry, to be co-chaired by trenchant Family Court critic Pauline Hanson, and the federal government's plans to merge the Family Court and the Federal Circuit Court, Chief Justice Alstergren described his first year in the job as "challenging".
He has taken unorthodox steps to reduce the backlog in cases, including personally holding "callover" lists around the country, in which he brings in cases that are more than two years old to resolve them.
During recent sittings in Brisbane, Chief Justice Alstergren heard about 50 cases a day over a week.
He has also ordered court staff to compile a "heat map" to determine which judges and regions are struggling with the biggest backlogs, provided judges with more education and mentoring, and worked to more quickly replace judges who have retired.