Merritt & Merritt & Ors

In the proceedings BRC7783/2013 before Forrest J, the parties sought leave to inspect and copy documents from the court file for use in separate parenting proceedings in the Federal Circuit Court (FCC). These FCC proceedings involved the partner of the father in the present proceedings, and included allegations of sexual abuse by the father of the children in the present proceedings. The Independent Children’s Lawyer (ICL) also sought a stay of the delivery of judgment in the present proceedings, as they had not yet filed final submissions and intended to seek leave in the FCC to inspect the court file in other parenting proceedings to determine the relevance of any information to the present matter.

The court was required to determine whether to grant leave for the parties in the FCC proceedings to inspect and copy specific documents from the court file in BRC7783/2013, and whether to grant a stay on the delivery of judgment in BRC7783/2013. The central issue was the potential relevance of documents from the present proceedings to the ongoing parenting dispute in the FCC, particularly in light of serious allegations of sexual abuse.

Forrest J applied Rule 24.13 of the Family Law Rules 2004 (Cth) to grant leave for the parties in the FCC proceedings to search, inspect, and copy specific documents from the court file in BRC7783/2013. These documents included a Family Report, Magellan reports, an affidavit of evidence in chief, and a transcript of a police interview with a child. The court reasoned that disclosure was warranted given the serious allegations and the potential relevance to the welfare of children in the FCC proceedings. A stay of judgment delivery in BRC7783/2013 was also granted until the end of February 2017, or until the ICL advised the court that judgment could be delivered without further delay, to allow for the ICL to complete their submissions and potentially access further information.

The court ordered that any copies of documents not adduced into evidence in the FCC proceedings and remaining on that court's file were to be returned to the court in BRC7783/2013 after the expiry of the appeal period following the making of final orders in the FCC proceedings.