In the unfortunate event that you find yourself in a position where you are considering commencing court proceedings, or you have found yourself as the Respondent to someone else’s Application, you are no doubt considering the timeline and asking how long until you can get back to living life? Helpfully, with the merging of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia and Family Court of Australia in late 2021, the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia published a Central Practice Direction which sets out the approximate timeline a matter should follow while it moves through the stages of the court pathway.

1. First Court Event
   The First Court Event will be one to two months from the date of filing the Initiating Application (being the document which starts the proceedings).However, where the Court assesses that there is an urgent matter requiring the Court’s intervention, where appropriate the Court will list the matter for an urgent date. How urgently a matter is brought before the Court varies widely from days to weeks and will depend on the nature of the issue at hand.
2. Interim Hearing
   There is no specific time frame given for the setting down of an interim hearing, as depending on the facts of the matter there may be a number of steps necessary outside of the Court pathway before the matter is ready to proceed to an interim hearing. 
3. Dispute Resolution
   The Central Practice Direction sets out that Dispute Resolution should occur as early as possible and usually no later than five months after the filing of the Initiating Application. 
4. Mention
   The Central Practice Direction sets out that a matter should be listed for Mention no more than two weeks after Dispute Resolution taking place. 
5. Compliance and Readiness Hearing
   The Central Practice Direction sets out that a matter should be listed for a Compliance and Readiness Hearing as close as possible to six months after the filing of the Initiating Application. 
6. Trial Management Hearing
   The Central Practice Direction does not provide a timeline for Trial Management Hearings. 
7. Final Hearing (Trial)
   The Central Practice Direction sets out that wherever possible, a matter should be listed for a Final Hearing on a date which is before twelve months from the filing of the Initiating Application. 
8. Judgement
   The Central Practice Direction sets out that the expected timeframe for judgement to be delivered is as soon as reasonably practicable after the receipt of final submissions and usually within three months. 

While the Court strives to adhere to the timeframes set out in the Central Practice Direction, the Court ultimately maintains discretion and flexibility as to the progression of a matter and court resources will be allocated in order of urgency. Often, a matter will suffer delay as a result of third-party timelines such as the production of an expert report (like a family report). It is important to remember that while the Central Practice Direction can provide an estimate, there are no guarantees that a matter will be finalised within the time frame above nor that it will follow the eight step pathway exactly. To read more about each step in the court pathway, view our article explaining the steps involved.