Family Court of Australia

Family Court of Australia
The Family Court of Australia, Melbourne is housed in the Commonwealth Law Courts Building on the corner of La Trobe Street and William Street
Established	1976
Country	Australia (except Western Australia)
Authorized by	Australian Constitution
Decisions are appealed to	High Court of Australia (on special leave)
Chief Justice
Currently	Diana Bryant
Since	2004
Jurist term ends	2017
Deputy Chief Justice
Currently	Vacant
Since	2016

The Family Court of Australia is a superior Australian federal court of record which deals with family law matters, such as divorce applications, parenting disputes, and the division of wealth when a couple separate. Together with the Federal Circuit Court of Australia, it covers family law matters in all states and territories of Australia except Western Australia. Its core function is to determine cases with the most complex law, facts and parties, to cover specialised areas in family law, and to provide national coverage as the national appellate court for family law matters.

Established by the passing of Family Law Act 1975, under Chapter 3 of the Australian Constitution, it commenced operations on 5 January 1976. It currently comprises a Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice, Appeal Division judges and other judges. In July 2008, there were 44 judges (5 of whom were also Judges of the Family Court of Western Australia), 2 judicial registrars and 1 senior registrar. The Court maintains registries in all Australian states and territories except Western Australia.

The Court has had three Chief Justices to date, Elizabeth Evatt AC, Alastair Nicholson and Diana Bryant QC (Formerly Chief Federal Magistrate, appointed to current role in 2004). The Deputy Chief Justice is John Faulks (appointed as a Judge in 1994 and to his current position in 2004).

The 2008–09 federal budget provided for Family Court expenditure of $137m (including services provided free to the Federal Magistrates' Court).

Commonwealth family law is dealt with by the Family Law Act 1975, the Family Law Regulations 1984 and the Marriage Act 1961. In 1986–87, the States agreed that children should be dealt with under the same legislation. The Family Law Act 1975 was amended in 1988 to reflect this agreement (although this did not happen in relation to Queensland until 1990). Western Australia, however, did not enter into the agreement and has maintained its own separate Family Court which deals with federal legislation (such as the Family Law Act) as well as state legislation such as the Family Court Act (WA).