Judges separate ‘fact from fiction’ as court merger looms

Family Court judges have today forwarded an explosive document hitting out at “misinformation” from Christian Porter.

Attorney-General Christian Porter. Picture: AAP

Family Court judges have today forwarded an explosive document to all bar associations and law societies as well as the judges union, hitting out at what they say is “misinformation promulgated” by Attorney-General Christian Porter.

The six-page document, prepared by unnamed Family Court judges, purports to separate “fact” from “fiction” regarding their performance and efficiency, when compared to lower-level Federal Circuit Court judges. The Federal Circuit Court now handles about 90 per cent of family law matters, while the Family Court deals with the most complex 10 per cent of cases.

Mr Porter is set to introduce legislation to parliament — possibly as early as next week — to scrap the Family Court, and to create a new court which combines the two courts. The changes are aimed at improving the efficiency of the family law system, amid crippling delays for litigants.

The document says judges are expected to remain silent to protect their independence, and usually rely on the Attorney-General to “defend them from unfair criticism”.

“However, when the Attorney-General is not prepared to do so and criticises the Court on the basis of alleged facts, judges have no option but to speak up in their own defence and to correct misleading statements,” it says.

The judges say statistics quoted by Mr Porter in an editorial in The Australian were “entirely misleading”.

In particular, a suggestion that Federal Circuit Court judges each disposed of an average of 330 matters a year, compared with 26 for Family Court judges was misleading, because the statistics for the lower-level court included disputes resolved by consent.

It says none of the almost 14,000 cases settled in the Family Court were counted — but if they were, would equate to 605 cases per judge. Cases resolved by consent in the Family Court are handled by registrars, under the supervision of judges.

The Attorney-General’s suggestion that it was a “concerning trend” that Family Court judges resolved about 250 fewer cases last year compared to the previous year also had “no evidence” to support it, the document says.

The judges say the Family Court managed to resolve as many cases as it received last year — in contrast to the lower court, which increased its backlog of cases.

This was despite the Family Court operating with 2.5 fewer judges, because the government had failed to replace judges who had retired. The court was also dealing with far more cases involving domestic violence and unrepresented litigants, the judges say.