Appeals in Western Australia

In the Perth metro area all family law jurisdiction in Western Australia is exercised by the Family Court of Western Australia (“Family Court of WA”) under the Family Court Act (being the only State court established under the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) in 1978) and by order of a proclamation (which operates as between the State’s Supreme Court and Family Court of WA). The Family Court of WA will transfer matters to be dealt with by the Magistrates Court (sitting in the same building and which is the only court of summary jurisdiction in the metro area permitted to deal with family law matters). Family Law Magistrates deal with nearly all procedural matters, programming and interlocutory hearings and now also deal with child welfare and property settlement matters that are non-complex or of less than two days duration. Any appeal from a Family Law Magistrate is similar to an appeal from a Federal Circuit Court judge and is to the Full Court of the Family Court of Australia.

The Family Court also has registrars who conduct procedural hearings, conciliation conferences, non-contentious divorce hearings and other tasks. Orders made by registrars can be appealed to a single judge of the Family Court of Western Australia as of right and the hearing is "de novo".

Appeals from any judge of the Family Court of Western Australia is to the Full Court of the Family Court of Australia and the usual rules apply. If the appeal is in relation to a de facto matter then the appeal is made to the Supreme Court of Western Australia and the rules of that court apply. The form, practice and procedure is quite different in the Supreme Court of WA from the Family Court and the judges hearing the appeal in the Supreme Court are not specialist family law judges.

Outside of the Perth CBD a party may bring an application and seek interim orders before any Magistrate. Generally these matters are dealt with in the Magistrate’s Court of the major regional centres such as Albany, Bunbury, Kalgoorlie, Geraldton, Karratha, Port Hedland and Broome. The Magistrates have limited power and are generally only involved in making consent orders or dealing with interim applications.

The proceedings are then transferred from that country town’s the Magistrate’s Court to the Family Court of Western Australia.

Note: The Family Court of Western Australia travels on circuit to Albany, Bunbury, Kalgoorlie, Geraldton, Karratha and Broome and the transferred matters are then generally dealt with in the circuit cycle towns. Such proceedings are technically Family Court of WA proceedings and follow the rules, practice and procedure of the Family Court of WA although in many cases the judges will make their own procedural orders for the conduct of the proceedings.

The guidance notes in this subtopic dealing with appeals from courts of summary jurisdiction, the Federal Circuit Court, appeals from interlocutory decrees and orders and appeals to the Full Court of the Family Court of Australia otherwise apply in Western Australia.

See Appeals in Western Australia.