Once you are accredited as a family dispute resolution practitioner

You must advise us of all changes of details by entering the details directly into the Register. You should update your own details yourself where possible.

To log into your account, go to the Register and select ‘Sign in to your FDR account’.

What to do if there is a technical issue with the Register

If you are unable to update the Register due to technical issues, you must contact us in writing and inform us that you are unable to update the Register.

We approve complaints bodies as suitable to provide a complaints-handling process for FDR practitioners. As an accredited FDR practitioner, you must have a complaints mechanism provided by an approved complaints body.

If you are considering changing your complaints mechanism, you should confirm that the organisation is an approved complaints mechanism. You can find a list of approved complaints bodies at Become a family dispute resolution practitioner. We are updating this list as complaints bodies are approved.

If you do not have a complaints mechanism provided by an approved complaints body, you will no longer meet the accreditation criteria. This means that you will no longer be able to provide FDR services, and your accreditation may be either suspended or cancelled.

We do not investigate complaints about practitioners.

It is a requirement in the FDR Regulations that you are covered by professional indemnity insurance for the provision of FDR services in order to remain accredited.

If you cease to be covered by professional indemnity insurance, we will need to suspend your accreditation until you can demonstrate that you are once again covered by professional indemnity insurance for the provision of FDR services.

The family law sector is a dynamic environment with continually evolving practice. It is important that FDR practitioners remain up to date in the legal environment in which they provide services, and with developments in the theory and practice of dispute resolution. 

The 2-year period starts from the date of your accreditation or the date a suspension is lifted.

Example: if you were accredited on 15 December 2024, you must complete your 24 hours of CPD by 11:59 PM on 14 December 2026.

You should aim to be familiar with relevant case law, and participate in a mix of training that is relevant to the provision of FDR.

If you claim CPD on the basis of providing education to others, you must be able to demonstrate what activities you undertook to be considered an industry expert.

Receiving supervision may be considered professional development where the recipient can outline the areas of growth in FDR directly related to the supervision.

Other subjects that aren’t directly related to FDR but which may improve how you provide your FDR service may also be considered as an appropriate activity towards meeting your CPD obligations. 

From 1 April 2025, practitioners must undertake CPD that relates to family violence in every 2-year period.

Work undertaken in the regular duties of the provision of FDR services is not education, training, or professional development.

Similarly, roleplaying scenarios where the practitioner plays a role for the benefit of students is not likely to provide an accredited FDR practitioner with sufficient development for their own personal improvement.

Training that does not relate to how a practitioner may improve their FDR services is also not CPD.

You should maintain relevant documentation of any education, training, or professional development you have completed. This could be in a spreadsheet or log book.

You will need to keep a record of:

• a description of the activity

• the date it was undertaken

• the duration of the activity

• what learning was gained from the activity

• any weblinks or literature titles, if applicable.

FDR practitioners should keep any certificates of courses they have completed.

A declaration that you have completed CPD is not suitable evidence to demonstrate you have met the CPD requirements.

Practitioners are not required to send CPD evidence to us unless requested to do so by an authorised officer for audit purposes.

A failure to complete the minimum 24 hours of CPD within the required 2-year period may result in:

• a requirement to undertake additional CPD

• a condition being placed on your accreditation until the CPD requirements have been met

• suspension of your accreditation 

• cancellation of your accreditation.

As an accredited FDR practitioner, you can request that we suspend your accreditation. There are many reasons why this might be appropriate for you.

For example, you may be planning to step out of the workforce for a period of time and you do not want to maintain your obligations while you are on leave.

You might also lose access to a suitable complaints mechanism or professional indemnity insurance for a period of time, and as you no longer comply with the accreditation requirements, you can request that your accreditation is suspended until you meet your obligations again.

It is important to remember that you are only suspended when we approve your suspension. You will receive written notice of the suspension.

Under the FDR Regulations, we may suspend your accreditation on a number of grounds. These include:

• failing to comply with the Family Law Act 1975 (the Family Law Act) or any obligation imposed on the practitioner by the Family Law Act

• failing to meet the accreditation criteria

• failing to comply with any condition of the accreditation

• engaging in conduct that is likely to bring FDR into disrepute

• knowingly giving false or misleading information, or failing to disclose material information, in order to be accredited or in purported compliance with a condition of your accreditation

• being convicted or charged with offences involving violence to a person or a sex-related offence, including rape, sexual assault, indecent assault, unlawful sexual acts with or upon minors, child pornography, procuring or trafficking of a child for indecent purposes or being knowingly concerned with the prostitution of a child.

When deciding to suspend your registration, we must advise you and seek information from you about why the accreditation should not be suspended. 

If suspending your accreditation, the FDR Regulations require us to advise you of the following things:

• the reasons for and effect of the suspension

• the date the suspension takes effect

• what you must do to lift the suspension

• the maximum period that the accreditation can remain suspended for

• your review rights.

You can find more information about the specific grounds for suspension of accreditation, as well as the formal notification process, in the FDR Regulations.

If you wish to lift a suspension, you must provide all of the following:

• evidence of how you meet the accreditation criteria

• if you had to do a specific thing to be eligible for the suspension to be lifted, evidence of that thing being done

• a declaration of the accuracy of the information provided

• consent for any provided information to be verified.

To ensure that you meet the Accreditation Standards under the FDR Regulations at the time of recommencement, you will need to provide all of the following:

• a national police check (no older than 4 months)

• a Working with Children Check (if applicable)

• evidence of your complaints mechanism

• evidence of being covered by a policy of professional indemnity insurance to provide FDR services

• contact details to ensure the FDR Register is current.

Continuing professional development

When your accreditation is reinstated, your ongoing professional development obligations will recommence from the date of reinstatement. You will need to complete at least 24 hours of ongoing education, training or professional development in FDR in each 24-month period from the date of reinstatement. Hours undertaken before your suspension was lifted cannot be counted.

The maximum period of time you can have your accreditation continually suspended is 5 years. If the suspension has not been lifted when the 5-year timeframe elapses, we must cancel the accreditation.

If you are suspended, you are not considered to be accredited under the FDR Regulations for the duration of the suspension. 

This means that although you are encouraged to keep your knowledge in the field of FDR up to date, while your accreditation is suspended you are not required to maintain your education, training or professional development obligations under the FDR Regulations, or maintain AMDRAS, access to a complaints mechanism or professional indemnity insurance. While you are not obliged to maintain contact details, we encourage you to keep these up to date in the register, as this will help us contact you if we need to give you information.

You can request that we cancel your accreditation. You might want to cancel your accreditation if you are retiring, or will no longer be working as an FDR practitioner.

If you request that your accreditation is cancelled, we must cancel it.

Three-unit pathway

Many FDR practitioners were originally accredited on the basis of 3 specified units of competency under the former Vocational Graduate Diploma of Family Dispute Resolution (or equivalent course) and inclusion on the register as at 30 June 2009. From 1 April 2025, this accreditation pathway is no longer available.

If you were accredited under this pathway and you cancel your accreditation, you will be required to complete further study in order to meet the current criteria if you ever wish to reapply for accreditation.

If there is a chance that you may wish to resume your work as an FDR practitioner in the future, you may wish to consider suspending your accreditation instead of cancelling it. This would mean that you will have 5 years to return from suspension under this older pathway.

We may immediately cancel your accreditation if you no longer meet any of the accreditation criteria or if you become prohibited from working with children.

We may also cancel your accreditation, after seeking information from you, where there is a concern that you:

• have failed to comply with the Act or any obligation that the Act imposes on you

• no longer meet accreditation criteria

• have failed to comply with any condition of the accreditation

• have engaged in conduct that is likely to bring FDR into disrepute 

• knowingly gave false or misleading information, or failed to disclose material information, in order to be accredited or in purported compliance with a condition of your accreditation.

If we decide to cancel your accreditation, we must give you written notice outlining:

• the reasons for and effect of the cancellation

• the date when the cancellation takes effect

• information on your review rights.

We must cancel an accreditation if we believe that an FDR practitioner has died.

You can find more information about the specific grounds for suspension of accreditation, as well as the formal notification process, in the FDR Regulations.