Tudway and Tudway & Anor

In the Family Court of Australia, Justice Stevenson considered an application by Ms L Tudway, an intervenor, for leave to utilise specific documents from ongoing family law proceedings in separate proceedings before the District Court of New South Wales. Ms Tudway had previously obtained a judgment against the husband in the District Court for personal injuries arising from his sexual assault of her when she was a child. She had been joined as a party to the family law proceedings by consent to secure satisfaction of this judgment debt from the husband's share of the property settlement. The husband had subsequently filed a motion in the District Court seeking to set aside the personal injuries judgment.

The central legal issue before the Family Court was whether to grant Ms Tudway leave, pursuant to rule 24.13 of the *Family Law Rules 2004* (Cth), to search the court record and copy specific documents for use in the District Court proceedings. This involved balancing Ms Tudway's legitimate interest in pursuing her claim against the husband with any privacy rights of the wife.

Justice Stevenson reasoned that Ms Tudway had a legitimate and proper interest in accessing the documents to support her case in the District Court. The Court found that the public interest in the proper determination of Ms Tudway's claim, particularly given the nature of the underlying judgment, outweighed any privacy interests of the wife. Consequently, the Court granted Ms Tudway leave to intervene for the purpose of her application, to search the court record and copy the consent orders of 15 April 2014, the transcript of proceedings on that date, and the husband's affidavit sworn on 24 September 2015. Ms Tudway was also granted leave to utilise these documents in the District Court proceedings, subject to an undertaking to seek suppression and non-publication orders in that court.