Project to increase transparency in family law courts details domestic abuse and child abductions
The Family Law Reporting Project examined 103 in-camera cases across a range of courts and jurisdictions, with the findings set to inform future policy development. File picture
Cases involving domestic abuse, child abduction, and bitter custody battles have been detailed in a pilot project by the Department of Justice aimed at increasing transparency in family law proceedings.
The Family Law Reporting Project examined 103 in-camera cases across a range of courts and jurisdictions, with the findings set to inform future policy development. The project was led by Carol Coulter, who said greater public understanding of the family law system was needed.
"Family law cases can have a profound and life-long impact, particularly on children," she said. "Yet what happens in the family law courts is largely unknown.
"I hope that the Family Law Reporting Project will bring transparency to these courts and also help dispel the fears and misapprehensions many people have.”
One of the cases examined involved a High Court challenge relating to a child who had previously been ordered to be returned to Japan under child abduction proceedings. The court heard that the father had failed to comply with the order, while the Court of Appeal had subsequently transferred custody of the child to the mother.
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The mother's barrister told the court that an application to have the father committed to prison would be brought if the child was not handed over.
Following discussions between the parties, arrangements were made for the child to be returned to Japan. The in-camera rule was lifted to allow the relevant authorities to be informed of the child's arrival.
A separate High Court case saw a proposed custody arrangement revisited after six years of legal proceedings. The case concerned two children of primary and secondary school age who had been living with their mother.
The appeal arose from the mother's objection to an earlier consent order providing for joint custody, with arrangements for the children to be agreed between the parents.
A psychologist who prepared a Section 32 Voice of the Child report gave evidence. The court heard that three reports had been prepared between 2021 and 2025 based on interviews with the children.
While the first two reports supported equal access arrangements, the third raised concerns and highlighted issues with the mother's behaviour.
The judge heard the mother had allegedly caused difficulty and embarrassed the father in social settings; he had subsequently blocked her on social media due to her conduct.
The judge heard that the mother occasionally brought the children to a purported access session that the father had not been told about in an aim to damage the father’s image in the child’s eyes.
The report writer believed the mother had told the child that the respondent was a bad person and abusive, and the court heard that she made multiple allegations to child protection agencies that lacked evidence.
The report writer recommended that custody be transferred to the father on an interim basis for at least three months. The judge adjourned the case to allow for the psychologist to be cross-examined.
In the district court, meanwhile, protection orders were issued for domestic abuse victims. In one case, a woman in a rural town who met a man on a dating app was confronted at her house by the man after their relationship ended after five weeks.
The man was drunk and aggressive and she eventually fled her home to stay at a friend's house. When she returned home the following day, he was still there.
She drove him to a train station and said she did not want to see him again. Three days later he was found unconscious in her garden shed, having overdosed. He had written a note addressed to her.
He was taken away by ambulance a few hours later, with a judge later granting the woman's protection order against the man.
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