Children's Cases Program
The Family Court's less adversarial approach was modelled on the Children's Cases Program (CCP) which began as a pilot in the Parramatta and Sydney registries in March 2004 for people who consented to a less adversarial hearing in court disputes about their children.
A major feature of the CCP was the active role taken by the judge allocated to the case. Unlike traditional adversarial hearings, a CCP hearing was more closely directed by the judge and designed to encourage the parties to focus on future arrangements that were in the best interests of their children. That is, rather than approaching the proceedings with the aim of 'winning' or 'punishing' each other, the parties (usually the parents) and their lawyers (if they were represented) participating in the CCP were encouraged to consider how they could help the judge find the best solution for the children.
Child Responsive Dispute Resolution Program
In October 2005, a 12-month pilot called the 'Child Responsive Dispute Resolution Program' commenced in the Court's Melbourne Registry in tandem with the Children's Cases Program.
The pilot program provided for greater focus on children by obtaining children's views and interviewing parents earlier. It also provided for the same family consultant to work with a family throughout its time with the Court and to provide feedback to parents at various stages throughout the Court process.
Evaluation of the CCP Pilot
A formal, two-part external evaluation was undertaken throughout the CCP pilot and included all CCP cases up to 31 December 2005.
In March 2006, Dr Jennifer McIntosh of Latrobe University presented the Court with a report that explored the impact of CCP on parenting capacity and child wellbeing. The report compared data from parents participating in CCP with similar data from parents in a control group of cases that were finalised in the same period. Dr McIntosh concluded that CCP 'demonstrated a greater capacity to respond to and safeguard the psychological vulnerabilities of the co-parental relationship, post separations than the traditional, adversarial ... process'. In other words, the CCP's less adversarial approach avoided the harm usually caused by putting already damaged relationships through an adversarial process.
A final evaluation report prepared by Professor Rosemary Hunter of Griffith University in Queensland, similarly found that as a less adversarial and more child focused process, the CCP had the potential to assist parents to parent more cooperatively. Professor Hunter also found that the CCP pilot resulted in a faster court process and parties who had participated in CCP were generally more satisfied with that process than parties whose dispute was determined using a traditional adversarial approach.