In 2014, major reforms were made to the Family Justice System as part of the Government’s wider commitment to ensuring that New Zealand’s courts were modern, accessible and responsive to the needs of those who used them. The reforms shifted the focus from court resolution of parenting disputes when parents separate to encouraging parents to reach agreement themselves where this is appropriate. They were intended to give families the opportunity to resolve issues without the need to engage in formal court proceedings which can be adversarial and exacerbate conflict.

The purpose of this report is to evaluate whether the changes made in the 2014 Family Justice reforms, primarily related to Care of Children Act 2004 (CoCA) proceedings, have achieved a number of intended benefits.

The reforms aims were to create a family justice system which is responsive to children and vulnerable people; encourages individual responsibility where appropriate; and is efficient and effective. It was intended that the Family Court be used for the most serious of cases with other disputes being settled using the new Family Dispute Resolution (FDR) service and Parenting Through Separation (PTS) courses.

The number of CoCA related cases and applications to the courts have reduced since the reforms have been in place. It appears likely that some of these cases have been resolved at Family Dispute Resolution as expected. However, there has been a no noticeable increase in the proportion of applications that are filed without notice (urgently). (From the Executive summary). More reports relating to the 2014 Family Court reforms can be found on the webpage. Record #5828