By Danielle Kutchel
A support service for court users has expressed concern over the merger of the Family Court with the Federal Circuit Court.
Court Network, a frontline community organisation which provides support to court users, is worried about the implications of the merger for people facing family violence.
The merger was announced on 17 February, and would see the two courts combined into the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.
Court Network’s highly-trained volunteers, known as Networkers, are in the courts everyday, providing information and referrals, emotional support and guidance to navigate the complex justice system.
Networker Nicky said the merger could result in a “loss of specialisation” in the courts.
“A lot of matters at the current Family Court are characterised by complex family violence issues as well,” she explained
“Currently, Family Court judges are pretty experienced with all of that but when those two courts merge, we have a fear that that specialisation might get watered down, to the detriment of some of the people who are going through the court system.”
She said she suspected the rationale for the merger was for cost efficiency, but said the area was too complex to cut corners.
“What our role will be when the two courts merge, we don’t know. We feel if our service is diminished as part of a cost-cutting exercise, that’s just another layer (of support) that will disappear,” she said.
“The average person in the street would understand family violence is becoming out of control in this country. It doesn’t make sense to on one level say it’s a scourge on society, which we hear from the Federal Government all the time, but then take away a specialisation in the court system and underfund resourcing.”
Court Network currently does not receive Federal funding for its activities.
After much trepidation last year, a private donor stepped in to provide the funding necessary for the organisation to continue its activities for the next financial year.
However, that extra funding is set to expire at the end of June.
Executive Director of Court Network, Maya Avdibegovic, said the organisation had put together a proposal for the Attorney-General – prior to the announcement of the courts’ merger – for ongoing funding for its services in multiple states, using face-to-face, telephone and online models.
She said Court Network is yet to hear back on its proposal.
Meanwhile, the court merger looms over the organisation’s services.
“Our concern is for court users and in particular those experiencing family violence because of that loss of specialisation. What we see through our face-to-face support and statistics…is most of the court users that access Court Network services are dealing with family violence matters,” Ms Avdibegovic said.
To meet the needs of court users after the merger, she said Court Network volunteers would be upskilled in areas within the Federal Circuit Court’s jurisdiction such as immigration.
But she said the continued provision of support by Networkers would depend on funding being provided to Court Network.
“If we don’t receive funding, we won’t be able to support those clients. That will all be lost,” she said.
“It will be hard to be there for everyone without funding.”
