Recommendations for Reform of Family Courts The Social Aspects

These welcome recommendations are briefly that all family matters which formerly have been dealt with in a number of different courts, such as Divorce, Petty Sessions, Children's and Quarter Session Courts, usually on appeal from decisions given in lower courts, should be gathered together and dealt with by a Family Court of summary jurisdiction and a Court of Domestic Relations. All present jurisdiction in family matters now dealt with in Equity and Common Law divisions of the Supreme Court, the courts of Quarter Sessions appeals, and the District Courts, would be abolished. The recommendations involve the establishment therefore of two new Courts—one, a minor court which is a Family Court of summary jurisdiction, and the second—a superior court, the Court of Domestic Relations constituted by a Supreme Court Judge sitting as the Supreme Court of New South Wales.