The Venues
Family Court of Australia
Federal Magistrates Court of Australia
Taking some of the pain out of family breakdowns
Finding a Better Way, a report to be launched tomorrow by Family Court Chief Justice Diana Bryant. Written by La Trobe University academic Jennifer McIntosh, is a study of the effects of the process on children and parents who participated in trials of the new system in 2004 and 2005. The results are encouraging. Children whose parents were divorced under the new system emerged happier than children whose cases were processed in the traditional way; their parents argued less and were more likely to have co-operative arrangements for sharing the children than other parents. Dr McIntosh concluded that the new system "demonstrated a greater capacity to respond to and safeguard the psychological vulnerabilities of the co-parental relationship, post separations than the traditional, adversarial process". In general, parents have also been positive about the new approach: whereas 70 per cent of parents involved in the previous approach felt the process had a negative effect on them as parents, just 28 per cent of those in the new process felt this way.
Family Relationship Centre concerns
Retiring judge Justice Kemeri Murray told a 200-strong crowd she is concerned that staff at the centres are not obliged by law to tell separating couples that any parenting agreements they enter into are not legally recognised. But Justice Murray says she is most concerned that clients are not told they do not have to attend the compulsory mediation sessions if they are a victim of domestic violence.
Mediation Centres ignore Domestic Violence
Mediators have a job to perform. That is to get the parties to mediate, to work out their differences and to settle. It seems that this is being done by underhanded tactics in some cases. In once instance a mediator locked the door and said if the mother did not sign final orders for 50/50 share residency - they would think he was doing a bad job - he would loose his memory and say she was unreasonable and unwilling to foster a meaningful relationship with the father, about whom, the mother had genuine fears due to ongoing domestic violence towards her and the children of the marriage .
There is also the problem of 'privileged information' when a person discloses abuse, but it cant be included in reports to the court.
Project Magellan
Paper presented by Professor Thea Brown, Department of Social Work, Monash University, at the Child Sexual Abuse: Justice Response or Alternative Resolution Conference convened by the Australian Institute of Criminology, Adelaide, 1-2 May, 2003.
Most of the papers presented at this conference can found via this link:
Cooperation and coordination:
An evaluation of the Family Court of Australia's Magellan case-management model
Magellan is an interagency collaborative model of case management in the Family Court of Australia for cases where serious allegations are raised about sexual or physical abuse of children in post-separation parenting matters. Based on a successful pilot project, Magellan has been rolled-out across the Family Court of Australia's registries since 2003. The aim of the current study was to evaluate Magellan against its intended goal of being an effective mechanism for responding to such allegations.
OTHER SUBJECT HEADINGS:
The Players
Evidence and Discretion
Legislation and Law
Venues
Self Representation
Family Court Decisions