Change follows court’s pilot in Parramatta, Townsville, Rockhampton registries
The Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (FCFCOA) has announced that all divorce hearings requiring parties to attend a hearing before a deputy registrar will proceed by Webex via an audio- and video-enabled link, effective 31 August 2026.
The FCFCOA highlighted the success of its pilot program for electronic divorce hearings conducted via video for matters in the Parramatta, Townsville, and Rockhampton registries, with parties utilising Webex in proceedings before a deputy registrar as of 15 May 2026.
“This is a change to the long-standing arrangement for divorce hearings requiring attendances where, except for those part of the abovementioned successful pilot, hearings were conducted by telephone only,” stated the FCFCOA’s update.
The FCFCOA explained that the shift to electronic divorce hearings aims to make divorce hearings accessible and efficient for parties and practitioners and to align with the court’s other electronic hearings before other registrars.
The FCFCOA noted that it utilises Webex because it uses a single static link for every divorce list, visible on the Commonwealth Courts Portal and on the daily court list the day before the scheduled hearing.
According to the FCFCOA, through Webex, parties and practitioners will not need to find the unique link prior to every court event, which will also help make the process more efficient for judges, registrars, and court staff.
For all divorce hearings covered by this change, the FCFCOA clarified that:
The FCFCOA noted that the presiding deputy registrar could permit parties or practitioners to appear without video if there were applicable technology limitations or safety concerns, which the parties or practitioners were expected to raise before the scheduled hearing.
In its update, the FCFCOA said it expected parties and practitioners participating in the affected divorce hearings to:
Here are some recent news stories involving the FCFCOA.
On 22 July 2026, the Australian government congratulated the following on their judicial appointments to the FCFCOA as of 10 August 2026: Steven Middleton and Sandra Taglieri to Division 1, and Tracy Flintoff to Division 2.
On 27 February 2026, the FCFCOA’s Divisions 1 and 2 shared that they held this year’s Family Violence Symposium in Sydney, uniting more than 70 national leaders from the government, judiciary, legal aid, and specialist family violence sectors, among others.
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