22 August 2024

Fitzroy Legal Service calls for family law system reforms to protect victim-survivors of family violence

Fitzroy Legal Service has welcomed the Commonwealth Government’s parliamentary inquiry into family violence orders and called for key interventions to better protect victim-survivors of family violence in Australia.  

Responding to the inquiry initiated by a referral from the Attorney-General the Hon Mark Dreyfus, Fitzroy Legal Service said there continues to be significant systems abuse tactics a perpetrator may use to harass and traumatise victim-survivors through the family law system, and access to adequate legal representation is a part of the puzzle to reduce this risk.

“For victim-survivors, (adequate and accessible legal representation) can provide them with much needed support in navigating numerous applications made by the perpetrator and reduce contact between the parties by ensuring all communication goes through their lawyers,” said Fitzroy Legal Service in its submission.

For those who use violence, lawyers can play an important role in seeking to limit vexatious applications, supporting the compliance with court orders and filing deadlines to avoid unnecessary delays, and providing legal advice to promote timely resolutions by consent when the client has limited prospects of success.

Fitzroy Legal Service

To this end, Fitzroy Legal Service highlighted the need to increase funding to community legal centres to ensure legal assistance is available to not only help victim-survivors navigate the system, but to discourage systems abuse among those who use violence. It also recommended increased training and education for courts, lawyers and service providers on how to recognise systems abuse when it does occur.

Fitzroy Legal Service draws on decades of experience supporting communities to navigate family law and family violence legal systems, and further highlighted the need for comprehensive information sharing between family law and family violence jurisdictions to reduce stress and confusion of victim-survivors, as well as risk of re-traumatisation in reducing the likelihood of having to retell their story multiple times.

In our experience, the difficulties experienced by victim-survivors in the family law system is caused more by the lack of efficient information sharing between the two courts than by matters being located in separate court.

Fitzroy Legal Service

“This system would help to enhance information sharing, save the courts and both parties resources, and lead to better outcomes for court users. Given how interlinked family violence and family law matters are, many documents filed, obtained or subpoenaed will likely be relevant for both proceedings.”

The Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs has been tasked to inquire and report on how to provide better access for victim-survivors in the family law system to Family Violence Orders (FVO) and the effective enforcement of those orders, and is currently accepting submissions.

We are grateful to our clients for trusting us with their stories and we acknowledge the victim-survivors of gender-based violence we work closely with, whose voices and experiences inform our advocacy for justice. Read Fitzroy Legal Service’s submission in full for its eight recommendations.