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FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA The workshop also included three individuals who had previously represented themselves in the Family Court. Their presence and contributions helped to ensure the focus of discussions did not unnecessarily deviate from the desired goal. A number of proposals were put forward over the weekend. A report of these outcomes was presented to the Court’s governing body the Chief Justice’s Consultative Council (CJCC). Some of the recommendations that came out of the workshop included: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ to provide a service to clients based on a fair litigation model that so far as possible eliminates the bias created by the adversarial system between parties of unequal resources and capability the development of a ready guide of hints for SRLs recognition and definition of the role of McKenzie’s friend making more of the resource of SRLs with experience provision of a resource room for SRLs the introduction of time staggered lists introduction of family conferencing The objectives of developing a fair, less adversarial, less costly and less time consuming process for litigation in family law matters remains an objective of the Court. Further work in this area is progressing. The Court is now in the process of developing and researching less adversarial models of litigation for family law disputes and is working towards piloting a Court assisted litigation model. A copy of the report of the visioning workshop appears in full at Appendix 8. 24
Self-represented Litigants ~ A Challenge: PROJECT REPORT CONCLUSION/WHAT NEXT The initial two year tenure of The Self-represented Litigants – A Challenge Project concluded in December 2002. Significant advances towards a national approach to meeting the needs of SRLs have been made. The project team made a number of recommendations on the outcomes from the project to the Court’s governing body, the CJCC, in December 2002. These have been accepted. A new structure will be established to support the ongoing implementation of a national approach strategy, and to continue to monitor the implementation of the outputs from the project and to support the objective of ensuring access to justice. This will be taken up by a new national group. The composition of the group will be settled in the near future. The Terms of Reference for this new group have been developed: 1 Oversight of the implementation at all Family Court Registries of the achievements of the SRL project by translating them into strategies which are embedded into the day-to-day core responsibilities of the Family Court. This will be undertaken in the following ways: ~ Each local Registry Management Team (RMT) will be responsible for ensuring the ongoing consideration of SRL needs and that staff at all levels are able to have input into local issues – including development and enhancement of contact with local non-government organisations. ~ RMTs will provide a conduit for information to and from each registry and to the new national group. ~ Registry managers are to be charged with the ongoing development of a model of best practice in the provision of access to justice. 2 The ongoing development of a national strategy for ensuring access to justice. This will include: ~ Exploring possible mechanisms for independent monitoring of the Court’s delivery of access to justice, including developing a strategy for a transition to an external mechanism for scrutiny of access to justice across all federal courts. ~ Engaging with academics, community representatives and governments (at both federal and state level) to advance the development of system wide strategies. 25
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