The Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia issued a new protocol in the last few days.
Court users will now be able to attend a Court Registry for a hearing or other Court event in person if a judicial officer has directed that event to occur in person.
All users are of course required to check-in using the QR Code at the entrance to the building and unless exceptional circumstances exist, be double-vaccinated.
In the general areas of the Registry, Court users are required to wear a face mask, however, in a Court room those masks may be removed by parties and practitioners when they are addressing a judicial officer.
Social distancing is to be maintained and this is described as keeping at least 1.5 metres away from other Court users which will make using the lifts interesting.
The use of virtual Court books and exhibits is to be maintained and interim or urgent matters will likely continue to be dealt with electronically.
Court expert events (Family Court Counsellors in the old language) will frustratingly continue to be conducted electronically.
Given every report in children’s matters we have seen points out the limitation of assessments conducted in this manner, hopefully we will see the end of this soon.
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