Introduction

The Family Court can request a psychological report either by s 29A of the Guardianship Act 1968, or s 178 of the Children, Young Persons, and their Families Act 1989. For the purposes of this seminar, reference to a psychological report might refer to reports sought under either legislation.

Practice Note – Specialist Reports Writers, issued by His Honour Judge PD Mahoney 1 July 2001 (attached at Appendix A) sets out the requirements and expectations of the Family Court and details the process to be adopted for specialist reports. The guidelines anticipate that the brief supplied by the Court to the report writer should identify the issues to be addressed in the report and is provided by the judge or is prepared by Counsel for Child in conjunction with counsel for the parties. Whichever form is adopted, in reality all counsel, whether Counsel for the Child or for the parties, will have input into the brief either by discussion between counsel or by submission to a judge when a request for a specialist report is made. Therefore, counsel should always be prepared to contribute to the brief to be supplied to the report writer and thus give consideration to the contents of that brief.