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The importance of court child experts in family dispute resolution
The Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia’s director of the Court Children’s Service for Victoria and Tasmania spoke to Lawyers Weekly about the role and importance of court child experts (CCE) in family dispute resolutions.
Jess Feyder
CCEs are employed by the court and are psychologists or social workers that hold a minimum of five years’ experience working with children and are experienced in the area of family law and separation.
Importance of the CCE in dispute resolution
Clare Swetenham, director of the Court Children’s Service of Victoria and Tasmania, discussed how CCEs assist in dispute resolution proceedings to assure matters are resolved in a way that considers the best interests of the child. She also discussed the ways they are utilised by family lawyers.
“The importance of the CCE in the dispute resolution conference is that they bring an unambiguous focus on the child and the needs of the children,” stated Ms Swetenham.
In a dispute resolution conference, there are generally a lot of adults in the room — the parties, the lawyers and the registrar — so the CCE is tasked with ensuring that everybody is focused on the needs of the children, Ms Swetenham outlined.
How they do this is by asking questions of the parties to bring out what the needs of the children might be, she explained.
“You might have a solution that the parents think is really fair, and it’s an obvious solution to a problem, but the CCE might ask a number of questions to really delve into what it would mean for a child to be living with those sorts of arrangements, and how they might practically work,” outlined Ms Swetenham.
“It can be especially helpful when children are really young, and perhaps haven’t been interviewed,” she continued, “they might be able to talk to issues around developmental needs, attachment, and the needs of very small children”.
“They’ll also be able to provide input in cases where children have special needs.”
“The other thing a CCE will bring to the dispute resolution conference is a finely tuned risk focus,” she said.
Ms Swetenham continued: “They’ll be assessing risk throughout the whole event. They operate with a trauma-informed and strong developmental lens.”
The role of the CCE
“There’s a couple of ways that CCE assists the dispute resolution process,” Ms Swetenham said.
“One is they’re in the room, they’re in the conference, and they are really very active participants.
“The other is there might have been a different CCE who had written the forensic report for their interim assessment. This report will help ensure that the child’s developmental issues, or other issues for the children, are focused on by everybody else in the dispute resolution session.”
“Perhaps a parent’s capacity to understand and reflect on the impact of a decision on their children might be enhanced by having somebody else there,” she said.
The CCE may observe the parties to see how they’re managing the questions, and also, they might be looking at the reflective capacity of a parent, outlined Ms Swetenham.
“It might be the case that a parent is finding it difficult to understand why something might be heading in a particular direction.
“Somebody with a social science lens can assist a parent to understand the dispute from the perspective of the impact on the child, as opposed to their sense of what the parent wants,” explained Ms Swetenham.
How family lawyers utilise CCEs
In the dispute resolution conference, a family lawyer might be working with a client and thinking their client may have unrealistic expectations, or a misplaced view about what might be best, Ms Swetenham outlined.
“A parent might have a strong desire to have a high level of care for a child when the child might be particularly young, or there might be a long distance for travel,” she explained.
In such a case, the family lawyer might ask the CCE to explain something from a social science perspective to their client, she said.
Confidentiality
When operating in a dispute resolution setting, the role of the CCE is confidential, and so the information they obtain in that setting cannot be used in court, Ms Swetenham outlined.
“It is not an opportunity to put any additional information to a CCE with the hope of it being used in any other way,” she said.
Challenges
“The decision about whether or not a CCE will be involved in a dispute resolution conference is made by the registrar team and is based on need,” explained Ms Swetenham.
“One of the challenges is that CCEs are a finite resource.”
“Lots of people would love to have CCEs in every conference, but it’s just not realistic.”
