WA Can Family Court Transcripts be Disseminated to Third Parties?

[Unknown entity]

Dear all,

I have a tricky one to raise.

In a family court where allegations of family violence have been raised, are court transcripts under such allegations (hearing) considered to be documents covered by the implied undertaking obligations, as transcripts recorded under a child abuse hearing may identify children by name, residence, relationships and others such as relatives having connection to Applicant, Responder, their children; and other persons identified in court transcripts?

We know that transcripts are made open which implies they may not be covered be undertakings buy family law (Harman rule) and confidentiality from my understanding makes this an S121 classified document.

Are these family court transcripts for example, able to be copied and disseminated to third parties such as, department of education, child support or appeals administrative tribunals or other family members?

Any thoughts on above please.

 

[Lennon]

Hi Mark, I think you are conflating two obligations.

One is the implied undertaking to the court not to use information or documents obtained or produced through the compulsory processes of the court for any purpose other than the proceedings in which they were provided. The implied undertaking does not apply to transcripts because as you have noted, the evidence is given in open court.

The other is the obligation imposed by section 121 of the Family Law Act, which makes it unlawful to publish (which includes disseminating the information to the public or a section of the public) any account of evidence or proceedings which would identify a party to the proceedings, a related person or a witness. So yes, IMO a transcript of family law proceedings is a document that you cannot disseminate to any section of the public without breaching s 121 (which is an offence).