Sandell and Neave

[2019] FamCA 445

FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA

SANDELL & NEAVE [2019] FamCA 445

FAMILY LAW – PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Family Report – Where the Applicant is seeking leave to inspect a Family Report prepared in another parenting matter involving the Respondent – Where the Respondent opposed the application on the basis that the two children who are the subject of the report would not be comfortable with their former step-father having access to the report – Where leave is given to the solicitors for the Applicant to only inspect the Family Report.

APPLICANT: Mr Sandell

RESPONDENT: Ms Neave

INDEPENDENT CHILDREN’S LAWYER: Bruce Scott

FILE NUMBER: BRC 5249 of 2016

DATE DELIVERED: 10 July 2019

PLACE DELIVERED: Brisbane

PLACE HEARD: Brisbane

JUDGMENT OF: Forrest J

HEARING DATE: 28 June 2019

REPRESENTATION

SOLICITOR FOR THE APPLICANT: Ms Martin
KLM Solicitors

THE RESPONDENT: Self-represented (appearing by telephone)

SOLICITOR FOR THE INDEPENDENT CHILDREN’S LAWYER: Mr Scott
Parker Family Law

Orders

1. That the solicitors for the Applicant Father be granted leave to inspect the Family Report of Mr B dated 7 December 2017, prepared in the matter of Antoniou & Neave, File No. BRC11884/2016, as part of their preparation for trial in this matter.  

Note: The form of the order is subject to the entry of the order in the Court’s records.

IT IS NOTED that publication of this judgment by this Court under the pseudonym Sandell & Neave has been approved by the Chief Justice pursuant to s 121(9)(g) of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth).

Note: This copy of the Court’s Reasons for Judgment may be subject to review to remedy minor typographical or grammatical errors (r 17.02A(b) of the Family Law Rules 2004 (Cth)), or to record a variation to the order pursuant to r 17.02 Family Law Rules 2004 (Cth).

FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA AT BRISBANE

FILE NUMBER: BRC 5249 of 2016

Mr Sandell

Applicant

And

Ms Neave

Respondent

And

Independent Children’s Lawyer

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

1. On 28 June 2019, I conducted a trial management event in this matter and listed the competing parenting applications for trial before me later this year. There are two children of the mother and father who are the subject of the competing applications.

2. The Applicant father was represented by solicitors and a solicitor from the firm that represents him appeared before me that day. The Respondent mother does not have legal representation and appeared for herself. There is an Independent Children’s Lawyer (“ICL”) in the matter also and he appeared.

3. I made trial management directions readying the matter for trial. At the conclusion of the hearing, the solicitor for the father made an oral application to be given leave to inspect a Family Report prepared by a Family Consultant, Mr B, in December 2017 in a parenting Orders dispute between the mother and the father of her two eldest children.

4. The Court was informed that the parenting dispute between the mother and the father in that other matter has since been finalised.

5. The ICL did not oppose the father’s application. The mother did oppose the father’s application. She submitted that it would be an invasion of her privacy and the privacy of the two children who were the subject of those proceedings but are not the subject of these proceedings. She submitted that those two girls would be very unhappy to know that the father in these proceedings (who was their step-father for several years after the separation of their mother and their father) might have access to that report.

6. I informed the parties that I would reserve my decision on the issue and read the said Family Report before deciding it.

7. I have read the report and consider that its content, particularly the opinion evidence of the Family Report writer about the mother’s attitude to the relationship of the two children and their father, may very well be a matter of some relevance to the determination of parenting Orders in these proceedings between the mother and the father of her two youngest children. Whether the Family Report is ultimately adduced into evidence in this case is another matter that will depend on the course the father’s legal representatives take and further argument that might ensue at any such future date that it might be sought to be adduced. Giving the father’s legal representatives leave to inspect the report does not pre-determine any such matters.

8. The mother submitted that her two children of the previous relationship would be upset to learn that their former step-father has had access to the content of that report. They would only learn of this decision if the mother informs them of it. If she considers that learning of it will upset them, such upset could be avoided by simply not telling them of the decision. That is a matter for her.

9. I will not include leave for photocopying in the order. Accordingly, the father’s solicitors will not be able to provide the Applicant father with a copy of the report, though they will be able to discuss its contents with him in the course of readying these proceedings for trial.

10. I make the Order set out at the commencement of these written reasons.

I certify that the preceding ten (10) paragraphs are a true copy of the reasons for judgment of the Honourable Justice Forrest delivered on 10 July 2019.

Associate: 

Date:  10 July 2019