Fairfax & Fairfax
[2021] FedCFamC1F 95
•29 September 2021
FEDERAL CIRCUIT AND FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA
(DIVISION 1)
Fairfax & Fairfax [2021] FedCFamC1F 95
File number(s): BRC 720 of 2020 Judgment of: AUSTIN J Date of judgment: 29 September 2021 Catchwords: FAMILY LAW – PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Review of decision – Where a Registrar made orders listing the outstanding interim applications between the parties for urgent hearing – Where the applicant seeks review of the order allocating a hearing date – Where the interim parenting dispute is already listed for hearing in two weeks – Where the applicant could not advance any reason why the applications were so urgent as to warrant an even earlier hearing date – Where there is no compelling reason to displace other cases requiring the Court’s attention by bringing the hearing forward – Application dismissed – Order of the Registrar discharged and replaced by an order properly identifying all pending interim applications. Legislation: Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) Pt VII
Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Act 2021 (Cth) s 67
Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021 (Cth) r 1.04
Division: Division 1 First Instance Number of paragraphs: 14 Date of hearing: 29 September 2021 Place: Newcastle Counsel for the Applicant: Litigant in person Solicitor for the Respondent: Best Wilson Buckley Family Law Solicitor for the Independent Children's Lawyer: Wallace Perkins Family Law ORDERS
BRC 720 of 2020 FEDERAL CIRCUIT AND FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRAIA (DIVISION 1)
BETWEEN: MS FAIRFAX
Applicant
AND: MR FAIRFAX
Respondent
INDEPENDENT CHILDREN'S LAWYER
ORDER MADE BY:
AUSTIN J
DATE OF ORDER:
29 SEPTEMBER 2021
THE COURT ORDERS THAT:
1.The amended order made by the Registrar on 20 September 2021 is discharged.
2.The following outstanding applications for interim relief are listed for hearing at 10:00 am on 15 October 2021:
a.The Application in a Case filed by the mother on 28 June 2021;
b.The Response to an Application in a Case filed by the father on 15 July 2021;
c.The Application in a Case filed by the father on 15 July 2021; and
d.The Response to an Application in a Case filed by the mother on 20 July 2021.
3.The Application for Review filed on 24 September 2021 is otherwise dismissed.
4.The oral application for costs against the applicant mother by the respondent father is dismissed.
NOTATION
A.The parties do not require the publication of Reasons for Order 4 hereof.
Note: The form of the order is subject to the entry in the Court’s records.
Note: This copy of the Court’s Reasons for judgment may be subject to review to remedy minor typographical or grammatical errors (r 10.14(b) Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021 (Cth)), or to record a variation to the order pursuant to r 10.13 Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021 (Cth).
Section 121 of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) makes it an offence, except in very limited circumstances, to publish proceedings that identify persons, associated persons, or witnesses involved in family law proceedings.
IT IS NOTED that publication of this judgment by this Court under the pseudonym Fairfax & Fairfax has been approved pursuant to s 121(9)(g) of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth).
EX TEMPORE REASONS FOR JUDGMENT
AUSTIN J:
The parties to these proceedings are contesting parenting orders for their four children under Pt VII of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) (“the Act”).
The proceedings were commenced by the father in January 2020 and there has since been a surprising amount of litigious activity. On my count, no less than six separate sets of interim orders have been made between the parties, the last set of orders having been made on 30 March 2021. Since then, no less than four more applications (contained in both Applications and Responses) have been filed by the parties.
On 7 September 2021, a Registrar listed the then outstanding interim applications for “urgent hearing” on a “date to be advised”.
On 20 September 2021, that order was amended to specifically list the interim hearing at 10.00 am on 15 October 2021.
On 24 September 2021, the mother filed an Application for Review, seeking the review of the Registrar’s order. She wants the urgent hearing brought forward by two weeks from 15 October 2021 to 1 October 2021.
Background
On 27 January 2021, it was ordered that the children would live with the father. A recovery order was issued to enable recovery of the children from the mother and all previous orders requiring the children to spend time with the mother were suspended.
Then, on 30 March 2021, supplementary orders were made for the children to spend supervised time with the mother on two specific occasions and then as the parties agree in writing.
An appeal brought by the mother from the orders made on 27 January 2021 was dismissed on 27 August 2021.
So far as I can see, the current applications of the parties which have not merged in the orders made in January 2021 and March 2021 are these:
(a)the Application in a Case filed by the mother on 28 June 2021;
(b)the Response to an Application in a Case filed by the father on 15 July 2021;
(c)the Application in a Case filed by the father on 15 July 2021; and
(d)the Response to an Application in a Case filed by the mother on 20 July 2021.
In summary, the mother wants orders which enable the children be immediately “unified” with her and any requirement for their supervision to be discarded. It seems that she wants the children to live with her.
Conversely, the father wants the children to remain living with him, for the children to continue spending only supervised time with the mother (under his effective control), and for orders dictating the children’s school enrolments.
Disposition
The interim parenting dispute is already listed for hearing two weeks hence on 15 October 2021. The mother failed to advance any reason why the applications were so urgent that they must be heard two days from now, on 1 October 2021, or indeed on any other date between 1 and 15 October 2021.
The overarching objective of litigation under the Act is for it to be made quick, inexpensive and efficient (s 67 of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Act 2021 (Cth) and r 1.04 of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021 (Cth)). This litigation has already been given an inordinate amount of interlocutory attention. The parties will again be accommodated with another interim hearing on 15 October 2021, but there is no compelling reason to displace other cases requiring the Court’s attention by bringing the hearing forward.
The Application for Review is dismissed, but the amended order made by the Registrar on 20 September 2021 is discharged and replaced by another order properly identifying all the pending interim applications yet to be heard, as the parties and the Independent Children’s Lawyer agreed would be appropriate.
I certify that the preceding fourteen (14) numbered paragraphs are a true copy of the Reasons for Judgment of the Honourable Justice Austin. Associate:
Dated: 5 October 2021
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