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FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA
2.5 Links to other Court projects
Information exchange and links between Court projects ensures that Court
resources are used to their best advantage. Much of the information received by
the SRL project team was passed on to relevant Court projects and committees
such as:
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Rules Revision Committee
Forms Committee
Family Violence Committee
Client Services Environment (CSE) Committee
The CSE Committee developed Guidelines that require Registry Management
Teams (RMTs) to identify critical factors when considering making changes to
public waiting areas. The factors range from amenity, security, access, image and
cultural diversity through to the work environment, legislative requirements,
public waiting spaces and the Court's focus on determination and resolution.
RMTs are asked to consider several components. Under each of the components
is a set of criteria which need to be considered and linked to each other. The
needs of SRLs are taken into account when making any changes to public
waiting space. RMTs are currently assessing the client service environments and
identifying such changes as may be required.
2.6 Community Education Workshops
The project team supported and contributed to community education workshops
that were developed in collaboration with local community based agencies,
community legal centres and Family Court Registries.
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A one-day workshop for self-representing litigants was held at Dubbo in
November 2002. The workshop, supported by the Law and Justice
Foundation of NSW, was a joint initiative of the Western NSW Community
Legal Centre (CLC) and the Court's Dubbo Registry. The aim of this
workshop was to improve access to the Family Court for SRLs in the Dubbo
area, by providing information and skill development.
A similar workshop was held at Penrith City Library in March 2002, by the
Hawkesbury Nepean CLC involving the Family Court's Justice Boland and
Federal Magistrate Ryan.
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