Annual report [1997-98] - Family Court of Australia

More documents

Recommendations

Info

The Family Court of Australia – annual report 1997-98 Sydney (one). Other delays giving rise to complaints involved the handing down of judgements (eight), the other party manipulating the system to induce delays and circuits. ■ Law itself Several complaints concerned sections of the Family Law Act 1975. Three complaints concerned s66k(5), 100Aand s79A. Seven complaints alleged that the Act was biased against males or females, unrepresented parties and non-residential parents. ■ Fees Most of the complaints about fees concerned the cost of solicitors. ■ Proceedings This category includes complaints about what happened during Court proceedings. This financial year, 69 complaints were included in this field. Allegations of perjury produced the greatest concern. Many of the complaints received about ‘proceedings’ revealed that complainants did not understand what was happening to their application when in Court. Twelve letters contained requests for advice on how to bring matters before the Court. In 10 of the letters the writers said they did not follow or understand the proceedings. ■ Behaviour Complaints recorded in this category report behaviour allegedly exhibited by Court staff or members of the judiciary. Where a complaint is about an identifiable staff member the officer is made aware of the terms of the complaint and given an opportunity to comment. The Court received 70 complaints about behaviour. Of these, 66 referred to particular sections of the Court. Court counsellors (16), member of the judiciary (12) and registrars (7) were the focus of most complaints about behaviour. Five of the 16 complaints about counsellors alleged that the services received were unprofessional while four complainants thought the counsellor was rude. Afurther four complainants perceived the counsellor as biased. Three believed the bias was directed against males. Similar findings can be reported for registrars. ■ Administration The Court received 62 complaints about administration primarily related to access, filing and security. Complaints about access predominantly involved telephone access to Brisbane, Canberra, Sydney and Parramatta registries. The primary complaint about filing concerned sealed orders not being received. Complaints about the Court’s security included concerns that there is too much security and there was inadequate security. ■ Timeliness The Court has a standard performance indicator that a final response should be provided within two weeks of receipt of the complaint if it does not need to be referred to an area or registry manager for a report, and four weeks if it does. With the statistics at hand it is not possible to identify the complaints that were referred on for a report. Of the 342 complaints registered, 247 were closed at 30 June 1998. The majority (69%) were finalised in less than four weeks. Of these, 88 were resolved in less than one week. However, 13% took more than 10 weeks to resolve. One complaint took 27 weeks to resolve. Fifteen complaints received during 1997-98 remain open. At 30 June 1998, four of these had been open for 16, 17, 19 and 48 weeks. The remaining 80 complaints were not included in this statistic as either the date received or date closed was not recorded. 55
The Family Court of Australia – annual report 1997-98 Internal a nd external scrutiny Australian National Audit Office reviews ■ 1996-97 Financial Statements Audit – Sept 1997 ■ Receipting and Banking – Sydney, Parramatta, Melbourne and Brisbane Registries – Assurance and control assessment (ACA) audit – June 1998 External reviews ■ Report ‘To Have and to Hold’published 1998. The end product of an inquiry into aspects of family services by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs chaired by Senator Andrews (see also page 21). Decisions of courts and tribunals At 30 June 1998, the Family Court is involved in preparing for a hearing before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in relation to a request made under the Freedom of Information Act 1982. The Court is seeking to rely on s24 of the Family Law Act to refuse to grant access to the documents in the request on the grounds that processing the request would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the Court from its operations. Internal audit reviews ■ Termination Payments August – October 1997 ■ Assets – compliance audit – November 1997 to February 1998 ■ Transcription and Recording November 1997 to February 1998 ■ Registries – compliance audits – November 1997 to January 1998 Internal reviews and academic thesis ■ Evaluation of Simplified Procedures (FCACommittee, August 1997 – see also page 21) ■ Comparison of voluntary and court-ordered counselling clients (FCAresearcher and mediator, November 1997 – see also page 29) ■ Response of the Family Court of Australia to the Attorney-General’s Department paper on ‘Primary dispute resolution services in family law’(FCADecember 1997 – see also pages 19 and 29) ■ Management of child abuse allegations in custody and access disputes before the Family Court (Academics, February 1998 – see also page 23) ■ Impact of FCAproceedings on young adults (Academic, early 1998) ■ Mediator styles in the Family Court (Phd thesis, April 1998) ■ Splitting of siblings in custody arrangements (Masters thesis) ■ Comparison of shared residence with sole residence arrangements (FCAcounsellor, April 1998) ■ Survey of outcomes after conciliation counselling (FCAresearchers, May 1998) ■ Are cases becoming more complex? (Final-year thesis) ■ Community attitudes to marriage and divorce (External researcher, May 1998) ■ Client perceptions about the location of primary dispute resolution services (FCA researchers, mid-1998) ■ Use of Administrative Service Officers for Information Sessions in Melbourne Registry (Consultant, March 1998) 56
Page 2:
FAMILY COURT of AUSTRALIA Family Co
Page 5 and 6:
The Family Court of Australia - ann
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10: The Family Court of Australia - ann
Page 59: The Family Court of Australia - ann
Page 75 and 76: TheFamilyCourt of Australia - annua
Page 101 and 102: The Family Court of Australia- annu
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
The Famil yCour to fAustra lia -ann
Page 125 and 126:
TheFamilyCourtofAustralia-annualrep
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143:
show all

Annual report [1997-98] - Family Court of Australia

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?