Family Court of Western Australia

Pre-Action Procedures

In child welfare matters, parties must attend family dispute resolution, prior to any application being made in the Family Court.

The aim of which is to encourage parties to settle their matter out of Court and as sensibly as possible.

There are cases when dispute resolution is not considered an option by a Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner. For these cases, a Certificate is issued and must be filed along with the Application to the Family Court.

A Certificate is not required with an Application where one or more of these exceptions apply:

• If the matter is considered of an urgent nature by the Court and your solicitor.
• There are allegations of child abuse.
• There are allegations of family violence.
• There are allegations of fraud.
• If there are time limitations (i.e., if the parties are required to file within a certain time, such as 12 months after the Certificate of Divorce was issued).
• It is clear the other party will not negotiate.

Please refer to our FAQs page for more information relating to Family Law.

For more detailed information about processes, brochures are available from the Family Court of Western Australia.