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Family law funding welcome, but more is needed
Lawyers practising in family law are grateful for the injection of cash and resources to the sector and courts, but note that this is an area that the government can and must go further.
Jerome Doraisamy
On Tuesday evening, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced the federal government will provide $220m to family law and family relationship services. “This includes $133 million towards family and child support programs and $87.3 million towards Family Law and Family Relationship Services,” he said.
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“Building on previous commitments to keep women and children safe and ensuring access to justice, we will provide the Family and Federal Circuit Courts with an additional $10.2 million to manage the impacts of COVID-19. The Morrison Government is continuing to guarantee our essential services at a time when Australians need them most,” he said.
“Finally, some good news was delivered to the Family Courts,” Justice Family Lawyers principal Hayder Shkara told Lawyers Weekly.
“There is not one family lawyer in Australia right now that is not praying for the proper management of the newly allocated funds. ‘The system is broken’ has now become an overused cliché. It’s only taken a pandemic to get a government to inject funds into this much needed justice system,” he said.
Cudmore Legal principal Luke Cudmore agreed, noting that “whilst the family law sphere has traditionally been well funded and resourced, this additional funding is a welcome addition”.
Elsewhere, Australian Family Lawyers head of family law (QLD) Vanessa Hernandez said that while the funding is gratefully received, much more is needed to address existing issues and new ones caused by COVID-19.
“We expect there will be more divorces and relationship separations in the coming years with the financial stress and pressures caused by the coronavirus pandemic. We saw an increase in family law matters after the Global Financial Crisis in 2007 and beyond and that’s likely to be mirrored post-2020,” she said.
“The additional federal funding of the Federal Circuit Court will hopefully see more family law matters expedited and help ease the burden on the courts in managing the increase in litigants post-COVID given the heavy workload the court has had and continues to face. Additional funding allocated to help families resolve matters without going to court will continue to help parties save on significant legal fees and the stress and uncertainty in court proceedings.
“Better out of court resourcing including funding for support services is crucial for the emotional and psychological wellbeing of young people and children at a time when they are not only experiencing a pandemic and the impact on their socialisation and schooling but also parental separation.”
The reality, Ms Hernandez continued, is the budget funding is “not going to be enough but any funding in the family law system is helpful and welcome”.
“It would be good to have seen even more funding of family violence support programs. We have seen a jump in the number of new cases that involve family violence since the COVID 19 crisis began. That’s been exacerbated by the financial stresses but also by proximity with the perpetrator due to the enforced lockdowns and work from home arrangements,” she outlined.
Further to Ms Hernandez’s comments, Separate Together founder and director Siobhan Mullins said that what is amiss from the federal budget was sufficient funding for legal advice to complement the government’s focus on alternative dispute resolution for separating couples.
“The right information, advice, and guidance from suitably experienced family lawyers at the right time are critical factors to the path that a separating couple will go down – resolving matters at mediation or resorting to Court,” she explained.
Family lawyers must, however, get on board moving forward, Ms Mullins posited.
“To assist the government in achieving its objectives (relating to family law) the profession will wear a responsibility to step up and provide affordable or more pro bono legal services to an increasing market demand due to the current climate,” she argued.
Moreover, when it comes to determining how best to serve one’s clients at this critical juncture, she said that a “‘you’re-not-signing-up-to-anything-beyond-this-advice-consultation’ is a message to market that lawyers could send to encourage separating couples to get legal advice and early on”.
“This is a small and simple way that lawyers can best help people to navigate this landscape, while informing themselves of the available services and new initiatives that exist or will be created because of funding and sharing this with clients,” she concluded.
