The Family Court is the second biggest division of the District Court.

Working under more than 20 Acts of Parliament, its jurisdiction spans family matters from before birth to beyond the grave. These may relate to separation, marriage dissolution, spousal maintenance and child support, care and protection, adoption, surrogacy, custody, abduction, domestic violence and disputes about relationship property and estates of deceased people.

The court also deals with care and treatment issues for people with mental illness, intellectually disabilities and substance addictions held in compulsory care.

Legislative change in 2014 has produced a significant increase in defended cases which use more judicial resource.

Applications not Cases

Family Court statistics are recorded by number of applications rather than cases or people because each case may involve several applications or people. Some applications may be managed together.

Applications are grouped under the following case types:

• Care of Children Act
• Children, young persons and their families
• Dissolution (divorce)
• Domestic violence
• Mental health
• Protection of personal and property rights
• Relationship property
• Other

Family Court Defended Statistics

Family Court Undefended Statistics

 All Family Court statistics for the 2018 fiscal year (ending 30 June 2018) as a spreadsheet:

Family Court Statistics 2017-2018 [XLSX, 25 KB]