Family Court for the Gold Coast

Gold Coast family lawyer Michael Kilmartin believes that Mayor Tate’s proposal to build a Federal Court on the Gold Coast is an “excellent idea” and “long overdue”.

The current backlog of case work for Federal Judges deciding family law cases is enormous and has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Everybody knows the real solution is that more Judges need to be appointed” and the recent announcement to combine the Federal Circuit Court and Family Court “is purely cosmetic and will do very little to improve efficiency” he says.

Mr Kilmartin says that he like other lawyers on the Gold Coast are baffled that we do not have our own Federal and Supreme Courts, he said “Would it not be cheaper to open a Supreme and Federal Court in Southport than to build a second M1?”

“It seems pointless that solicitors on the Gold Coast have to effectively make a day trip to Brisbane, to do simple tasks like inspecting or photocopying subpoenaed documents at high costs to the clients.”

Mr Kilmartin agrees with the sentiments of Cr Brooke Paterson that there are many other regional centres much smaller than the Gold Coast, like Rockhampton, Cairns and Townsville which all have their own family law registries.

“I feel for single parents, who have to leave early in the morning to get up to Brisbane, only to get stuck on the M1 and then having to rush back to the Gold Coast to collect the children from school. Quite often this does impact on their ability to continue negotiating.”

“The current circuit sittings of the Federal Circuit Court in Southport have been suspended during Covid-19 and are being conducted by telephone call-overs which are chaotic and not effective in bringing the parties together to negotiate and resolve.”

Mr Kilmartin said “Even when the world returns to normal the Southport Circuit is often less than one day a month and even then really only is lip service to the concept of circuiting as it does not occur frequently enough.”

“The family law courts system play a pivotal role in easing tension between separated parties including preventing tragedies such as the horrendous alleged murder of Kelly Wilkinson in circumstances of domestic violence.”

Michael Kilmartin is a family lawyer and legal practitioner director of Kilmartin Legal.

Gold Coast Bulletin article 5 May 2021

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