Children's Cases Program

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A trial program is being conducted in the Sydney and Parramatta registries of the Family Court in contested children’s cases.

The purpose of the program is to trial an alternative method of determining contested children’s cases to the current adversarial process.

To participate in the program, both parties must have participated in mediation through the Court’s counseling section, without success, and both parties must consent to enter into the program.

Once accepted into the program, a judge is appointed to deal with the case. Adopting a more inquisitorial style as practiced in some European countries, the judge makes a determination of what the real issues are in dispute. This may include matters at different levels, including legal and non-legal issues. The judge will then direct what the parties’ evidence is to address.

One of the differences with this program to the adversarial process is that the rules of evidence are not strictly followed. Otherwise, it is expected there is a greater probability of the parties’ evidence addressing the same relevant matters a judge needs to be addressed in order to properly determine a case.

Under the current adversarial process, the parties compete for an outcome best for them, but not always in the best interests of the child. In addition, parties often present evidence of different matters, which may make it more difficult to determine where the truth may lie.

It is expected that the time taken to finally determine a matter in the Children’s Cases Program will be quicker than in the ordinary course.

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