Domestic Violence Victims

It’s rare for a party to run the gauntlet in a courtroom by representing themselves. Rare, but not unheard of.
One area where the practice does happen with reasonable frequency is family law. According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies, there were 173 instances of self-representation in the Federal Family Law courts between 2015 and 2017.
Sadly, some of these cases would have inflicted a higher degree of stress than what is generally experienced in these proceedings. Why? Because self-representing litigants have the right to directly cross examine their adversary. And when there is a history of domestic violence, abuse or assault between the parties, such confrontation can be traumatic.
There have been situations where a litigant’s right to cross examine has overrode orders preventing contact from another court; causing severe anxiety on behalf of the party who sought those orders. It was feared that, in these circumstances, evidence on oath could be compromised.
That’s why the Federal Government moved to protect victims of domestic violence from being cross-examined by perpetrators in family law proceedings. Under The Family Law Amendment (Family Violence and Cross Examination of Parties) Act, victims of alleged domestic violence can also be protected at the discretion of the Court. In those cases, cross examination would be carried out by a legal representative, publicly funded should the self-represented party be unable to afford to engage counsel.
In situations where direct cross-examination is permitted, the Court can still order a range of measures to lessen the impact. These might include remote cross examination via video link or using a screen in the courtroom.
When he announced the Government’s intention to create this legislation, Attorney-General Christian Porter observed: “There is no question that directly facing a perpetrator or alleged perpetrator of family violence compounds the trauma of that violence and can also impact on the ability of a victim to give clear evidence in legal proceedings.”
The Act was passed by Parliament in December last year and commenced on 10 March 2019. However, it doesn’t come into full force until 10 September as it only applies to cross-examinations that are carried out six months after commencement.