Huffman & Gorman

In the matter of *Huffman & Gorman*, Foster J of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia considered an application by the father seeking to prevent photographs, USB thumb drives, and transcripts of those drives from being provided to Dr K, a child and family psychiatrist appointed as the single expert in the proceedings. The father's amended application and the mother's response to that application were otherwise dismissed.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether the father's proposed disclosure of the specified materials to the single expert was appropriate and in the best interests of the child, given the nature of the materials and the potential impact on the expert's assessment. The Court was required to determine the scope of information that should be provided to a single expert in family law proceedings and the principles governing such disclosure.

Foster J reasoned that the father's application to provide the materials to Dr K was not in the child's best interests. The Court found that the proposed disclosure was likely to prejudice the expert's independent assessment and potentially introduce extraneous or inappropriate information into the proceedings. Consequently, the father's application was restrained, and the broader applications by both parties were dismissed. The costs of the discrete application were reserved, with directions given for the filing of submissions regarding costs.