pARt 6 MAnAGeMent AnD AccountABilitY - Family Court of Australia

• National Case Management Committee• Property Management Committee• Research and Ethics Committee• Rules Committee.At the joint meeting of the Family Court and Federal Magistrates Court Policy Advisory Committees inApril 2010 it was agreed that some committees would be joint, with membership drawn from bothcourts. The joint committees are:PART 6MANAGEMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Committee• Benchbook Committee• Cultural Diversity Committee• eFiling Committee• Family Violence Committee• Information and Communication Technology Committee• Judicial Development Committee• Property Management Committee• Research and Ethics Committee.For detailed information on the judicial committees of the Court, see Appendix 10.Judicial committee highlightsThis section summarises highlights of the work of some of the judicial committees during 2009–10.Rules CommitteeIn 2009–10, the Rules Committee worked on various significant projects, including:• Rules harmonisation, in which it worked with the Federal Magistrates Court and the legal professionwith the object of providing the best, most efficient and cost-effective system for court users.Opportunities for rules harmonisation were identified in areas such as service of process, discovery ofdocuments and the form of affidavits.• Considering the single expert rules in financial matters. In concert with the Family Law Section of theLaw Council of Australia, the Committee consulted with valuers and single experts about the rulesand through that process identified possible areas of improvement, particularly with respect to theform of communication with single experts.In addition, the Committee considered:• rules governing the eFiling process (along with the Court’s eFiling group)• whether rules are required for the process of making suppression or non-publication orders• whether rule 10.15A should be expanded in scope106 Family Court of Australia — Annual Report 2009–2010