In 2023-24 the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2) received 13,858 applications for final orders; in the same period 18,848 applications for interim orders were also made. In that period there were 77 judges sitting in that Court around Australia. If the filed Applications were averaged out between the judges, it’s over 425 matters per judge - or just slightly more than two per working day of the year.

Given that most final hearings require more than one day of hearing time (somewhere between 2-4 ordinarily) and the judges require time to write and deliver the judgements as well as attend to administrative hearings for case management there remains a Court resourcing dilemma that faces many potential litigants (even with the increasing use of Senior Judicial Registrars to decide many interim matters).

This is where Alternative Dispute Resolution (aka mediation) comes in.

Since 2006 mediation has been mandated in suitable Family Law matters. The concept was introduced to try and assist parties to avoid the acrimony that can accompany court litigation - and in particular the impact that this has on the family moving forward.

But, in the context of the complexities with access to judicial decision making - delay, cost, time, energy, resources - it also offers the benefit of potentially avoiding litigation all together. If agreement is reached at mediation parties can enter into Consent Orders that finalises their dispute - regarding either parenting matters or property division issues or both.   

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