Merger of The Family Court and the Federal Circuit Court
On 30 May 2018 the Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter announced the merger of the Family Court and the Federal Circuit Court, with the merged court to commence on 1 January 2019. This comes in the middle of a review of the Australian Family Law system commissioned by the former Attorney- General and being undertaken by the Australian Law Reform Commission.
The fine details of the proposal are yet to be revealed, with the only information publicly released stating that the new court will have two divisions, and appeals will now be made to a Family Law division in the Federal Court rather than to the Full Court of the Family Court.
The government states that the merged court will reduce the very significant delays that families currently face in both courts, with cases taking 2 – 3 years to reach a final hearing before a judge.
As soon as we have more information about how the changes will affect our clients who currently have cases before the courts, we will update the De Saxe O’Neill blog.
Posted by Janine De Saxe