• A Family Consultant can either be a Court Child Expert (practicing under their appointment as a Family Consultant), or a Regulation 7 Family Consultant.
• All reports undertaken by Family Consultants are organised by the Court Children’s Service.
• Family Consultants have been identified by the Court as having the requisite qualifications, skills, knowledge and personal attributes to undertake the report.
• Family Consultants are generally Social Workers or Psychologists.
• Many Family Consultants also work privately as independent or expert report writers.

A Family Report is usually ordered by a registrar or a judge under Section 62G of the Family Law Act 1975, when parties may be having difficulty resolving issues in parenting disputes.

A Family Report is prepared by a Family Consultant. It is an independent family assessment that assists you and the court in making decisions about your child or children. Family Reports are generally ordered when a case is progressing towards a Final Hearing.

When evaluating and recommending the future care, welfare, safety and developmental needs of a child, a Family Report will consider issues such as:

• family dynamics and parental attitudes
• risk and protective factors
• past and current care arrangements
• proposals of the parties
• supports
• adult relationships
• children’s needs and their relationships

A Child Impact Report can also be ordered by a registrar or a judge under Section 11F of the Family Law Act 1975. These reports are generally ordered early in family law proceedings, and they provide a summary to the parties and the Court about the presenting issues relating to parenting matters.

The Court often funds these reports and hence there are no costs incurred by the parties for the preparation of the report.

Occasionally the parties may agree to fund (either jointly or individually) a private Family Report or Child Impact Report. In this scenario, a legal representative may contact an independent / private report writer.

Please contact me directly if you wish to discuss the process or fees associated with undertaking these reports.

If you have any concerns about your safety during the assessment and interview process, please let the Family Consultant know as soon as practicable. Opportunities to ensure the safety of all parties will be discussed as a matter of priority.

By law, people must inform a court if there is an existing or pending family violence order involving themselves or their children.

If a report writer has serious concerns about the safety or well-being of a child, then they are compelled to make a report to Child Protection.

After a Family Report is ordered, you will receive an e-mail advising you of the appointment details for you and your children to meet with the Family Consultant.

Interviews with all parties will generally be conducted face to face at the Family Consultant’s office. Other arrangements can be made if there are safety concerns, or if one (or both) parties reside interstate.

If the Court has made an order for a report, then you must attend the appointments with the Family Consultant as directed. If you do not attend, the report may not be able to be completed by the date set for the next hearing, which may result in delays and additional costs. Family Consultants are obliged to tell the Court if you do not attend your scheduled appointment.

Appointments can generally only be changed in exceptional circumstances. If you have difficulties with the appointment time/s or where interviews are to be conducted, you should contact the Family Consultant directly.

Prior to your appointment, the Family Consultant will be provided with affidavits and applications filed by both parties. Therefore, you do not need to bring any other documents to these meetings. The Court may also direct that the Family Consultant have access to additional material which has been subpoenaed.

A support person may attend the appointment with you, but it at the discretion of the Family Consultant as to what role your support person may play throughout the interview process. Please advise the Family Consultant of your requests prior to your appointment, so this may be discussed with you.

The Family Consultant will generally conduct a series of interviews with all parties in one day. They will have individual interviews with you and the other party. Please allow up to two hours for each of these interviews. The report writer may also interview other significant people, such as adult siblings, step or half siblings, partners or grandparents. This may occur via telephone or online after the scheduled interviews.

In preparing the report, the Family Consultant considers the children’s experiences and development, the family’s circumstances, and other issues relevant to the case. The Family Consultant makes recommendations for arrangements that will best meet the children’s future care, welfare and developmental needs.

Your children will be seen separately from any adults (except in special circumstances). The children will be given an opportunity to express their views and wishes, but no child will be compelled to do so.

Family report writers are skilled professionals, and they have expertise in interviewing and talking with children.

Children who are not of school age – or who have particular developmental needs – may not be interviewed.

The Family Consultant may also observe the interaction between the children and each parent (and other significant people) in separate observation sessions. Again, no child will be compelled to be observed with either party, particularly if there is an existing or pending family violence order involving the children.

It is important that your child has a brief understanding of why they are meeting with the report writer. However, it crucial that they are not coached or directed about what to say (or not to say). This will only heighten a child’s anxiety, and this will be evident to the report writer during the meeting.

Please note that there is no child care on site at a Family Consultant’s office. You are therefore requested to bring an additional person with you, who may provide care to your child whilst interviews are being undertaken with both parties.

Any information you provide to the Family Consultant is not confidential. All information gathered by the Family Consultant is admissible in court and can become evidence in your case.

The Family Consultant is required to include all relevant information in the report, and may also provide this information verbally in Court, if they are called to appear for cross-examination.

After meeting with all relevant family members, the report writer will have no further contact with the parties. This ensures that the report writing process is objective and equitable.

When a Family Report is directed to be undertaken, a registrar or judge will specify a date that the matter will return to court for a Final Hearing. The appointed Family Consultant will be ordered to provide their report to the Court on a particular date – usually many weeks prior to the hearing date. This enables all parties to undertake any additional recommendations, or to engage in further negotiations and / or mediation in an attempt to resolve the matter.

The Family Report may take several weeks to be written. After the Family Report is completed, the Family Consultant provides it to the ordering judge or registrar who will then formally release the report. Your lawyer (or you, if you don’t have a lawyer) will receive a copy of the report when it is released. A copy will also be given to the Independent Children’s Lawyer (ICL), if one has been appointed. The Family Consultant cannot give a copy directly to you.

The Family Report will be released prior to the Final Hearing. It is possible (and not uncommon) for matters to settle based on what is contained in the Family Report. Once the report is released, the Family Consultant cannot discuss it with you or receive any other information from you, either by phone or in writing.

You cannot show the report to other people, such as other family members or professionals, without the Court giving permission for this to happen. This is the case even for people who may have been interviewed for the report, but who are not a party to the court case. It is an offence, under s121 of the Family Law Act 1975 to publish or disseminate to the public, or a section of the public, any part of proceedings that identifies a party, a witness, or certain other persons.

It is important to note that the Family Report is only one source of evidence that the Court considers in making its decision. The Court is not bound by any recommendations made in the report.

If you wish to challenge the contents of the Family Report, then the appropriate way to do this is through cross examination in Court. For this to occur, the Family Consultant must be called as a witness and given at least 14 days’ notice in writing. You (or your lawyer, if you have one) should write to the Family Consultant at the address shown on your court correspondence.

In cross-examination, you (or your lawyer), the other party (or their lawyer), the Independent Children’s Lawyer (if one is appointed) and the judicial officer may ask the Family Consultant questions about the contents of the report and their assessment of your family.