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Screening and assessment in family dispute resolution

Family dispute resolution (FDR) practitioners are required to screen and assess clients at the beginning of the FDR process.

To comply with section 20 of the Family Law (Family Dispute Resolution Practitioners) Regulations 2025 (the FDR Regulations) as an FDR practitioner, you must conduct an assessment and be satisfied that FDR is appropriate before starting the mediation component of FDR. You should continue assessing suitability for FDR throughout the FDR process.

Besides making sure that a matter is appropriate for FDR, screening and assessment help you identify the needs of family members. If you identify safety concerns, you should take appropriate actions to protect those who are affected.

Screening resources

In 2012, we commissioned the development of the Family Law Detection of Overall Risk Screen (DOORS) Handbook. DOORS is a validated and standardised frontline screening tool and framework that has been developed for family law professionals (including FDR practitioners) to use to identify safety risks for clients across the family law system. The tool and framework are simple, practical and flexible to meet the varying needs of professionals, services and clients. While not mandatory, you may find the DOORS tool useful in your current practice.

To download a copy of the Family Law DOORS eBook, and for more information about the Family DOORS App, visit the Family DOORS website.

The DOORS Handbook complements the AVERT Family Violence Training Package, which we also commissioned. It was developed in 2011 and is a multi-disciplinary training package. It includes an online component that gives professionals working in the family law system a sound and practical understanding of family violence, its impact and appropriate strategies for responding.

Visit the Australian Institute of Social Relations website for more about AVERT.

Determine whether FDR is suitable

Deciding whether FDR is appropriate is a matter for your professional judgement as an FDR practitioner after considering the list of factors outlined in section 20:

  • the presence of (including a history of) family violence

  • the likely safety of the parties, or any other person involved in the conduct of the sessions

  • the equality of bargaining power among the parties

  • the risk that a child may suffer abuse

  • the emotional, psychological and physical health of the parties

  • the undue bias or influence of a person on the parties (whether or not the person is a party to the dispute)

  • any other matter the FDR practitioner considers has material impact on the ability of the parties to negotiate freely.

Note: Section 23 of the FDR Regulations states that you must terminate FDR if requested to do so by a party. You may also end the session if you are no longer satisfied that FDR is appropriate (subsection 20(1)). Even if the behaviours don’t make the process unsafe, abuse and intimidation could result in an unfair outcome.

Risk domains

There are various domains of risk-to-safety posed by clients, and to those associated with them (usually the partner or ex-partner), which can include:

  • domestic and family violence and violence towards others

  • child abuse or abduction

  • self-harm.

Early screening questions include:

  • Do you have any reason to be concerned for your own safety or the safety of your children?

  • Do you have any other worries about the wellbeing of your children at the moment?

  • Do you have any reason to be concerned for the safety of anyone else, including your pets?

Although screening for the presence of violence may help identify cases where there are safety issues, you cannot rely on a single screening process to fully identify a history of, and potential for, violence and abuse. This is because victims may:

  • not perceive the abuse they have lived with as violence

  • not feel comfortable reporting their experiences because of shame or embarrassment 

  • underestimate the severity of the situation 

  • fear they won’t be believed or that their children may be removed from their care

  • be too afraid to disclose violence for fear of reprisal from their ex-partner.

For more information about risk domains, see the Family Law DOORS Handbook.

Suitability for FDR

FDR practitioners need to be aware that there are various indicators associated with domestic and family violence, self-harm, child abuse and abduction. For more information about risk indicators, see the Family Law DOORS Handbook. 

To maximise safety, comprehensive screening and assessment in the initial stages will determine whether a joint session is:

  • considered a suitable process

  • considered suitable, but only if both clients are willing to agree to and cooperate with special conditions attached to the process 

  • not considered a suitable or safe process.

Even if a client’s situation is not suitable for a joint session at present, they may be able to participate in future. A referral to another organisation may be more appropriate in the meantime, for example to a counselling service.
 

Family violence and FDR

Some clients who have been victims of violence may feel there are benefits to participating in family dispute resolution rather than going to court. If there has been a history of violence, you must conduct family dispute resolution in a way that is fair and ensures safety before, during and after the sessions.

The following practices will help clients disclose domestic or family violence (based on research undertaken by Keys Young (1996). Research/Evaluation of Family Mediation Practice and the Issue of Violence. Canberra: Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department):

  • Ask specific questions about abuse or violence.

  • Ask about non-physical types of abuse, harassment or attempts at intimidation.

  • Ask about abuse or other concerns face-to-face — not just through filling out a form.

  • Interview the person separately from the ex-partner before FDR.

  • Give an explanation about why talking about abuse or its impact is important in the context of FDR.

  • Inform of the importance of disclosure to ensure appropriate support is provided during the FDR session.

  • Demonstrate an understanding of the client’s specific concerns.

If you identify safety concerns during the FDR process, you should adopt a systematic approach to responding to the needs of parents and children. 

You should link your screening and assessment to providing safety plans when you identify risk. Safety planning may include referrals to other relevant services. These could include:

  • specialised family violence support services
  • legal services for advice, for example, about personal protection orders and options for addressing parenting arrangements
  • therapeutic support services for affected parents and children
  • men’s behaviour change programs. 

You can also make referrals for other support needs, such as housing, mental health and substance misuse.

Under section 4AB of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth), ‘family violence’ means ‘violent, threatening or other behaviour by a person that coerces or controls a member of the person’s family (the family member), or causes the family member to be fearful.’

You should consider this definition when you are screening and assessing whether it is appropriate for a client to participate in FDR or continue participating. There may be situations where individuals previously assessed as suitable may now be unsuitable for FDR. This will depend on the individual circumstances of each case.

When assessing the suitability of FDR, you should also consider other relevant factors under the Regulations, including:

  • equality of bargaining power among the parties
  • the emotional, psychological and physical health of the parties
  • any other matter that you consider to have a material impact on the ability of the parties to negotiate freely.

You should also be aware that under the Family Law Act, a child is exposed to family violence if they see or hear family violence or otherwise experience the effects of family violence. This could include overhearing threats, seeing or hearing an assault, providing comfort to a family member who has been assaulted, cleaning up damaged property, or being present when emergency services respond. Practitioners should be aware of this, particularly for mandatory reporting purposes of child abuse.

People who have experienced or are at risk of family violence are able to seek an exception to the FDR requirements under the Family Law Act and apply directly to court. This means that they do not need to attempt FDR and have a section 60I certificate issued.

The court needs to consider claims for the exception against the definitions for family violence and abuse.

FDR practitioners should advise people to tell court staff if they are relying on an exception. The court staff will give them further information, including what form is required.

You should be aware that some people who have been victims of violence may feel there are benefits to participating in family dispute resolution rather than going to court. In these situations, if you assess that it is not suitable to commence or continue FDR, you may issue a section 60I certificate.


Ongoing screening and assessment

Screening and assessment must be done at the beginning, but should also be an ongoing process at each point of contact with the client. You can do this ongoing screening and assessment ‘in the background’ rather than formally. You should be aware that circumstances might have changed, and should reassess the situation accordingly.

It is not necessary for you to see any written or other evidence before making a decision that FDR is inappropriate because of family violence. You should rely on your professional judgement.

If you believe that FDR is inappropriate because of allegations of family violence, you can issue a certificate stating that it would not be appropriate to conduct FDR. It does not matter that family violence is also an exception to the requirement to attend FDR.

If it becomes apparent during the course of the FDR that it would be inappropriate to continue, you can issue a section 60I certificate to cover the situation. For example, if a history of violence is not identified during the initial suitability assessment, but it becomes apparent during FDR that this has occurred and is impacting on a person's ability to negotiate, you may decide to stop the process and issue a certificate.

On the certificate, you are only required to indicate that FDR is not appropriate. You are not required to provide any reason why it is inappropriate. Communications to FDR practitioners are not admissible in court proceedings, except in cases of child abuse where the court cannot obtain the information through other sources.


Supervision

Anyone conducting screening and assessment should receive regular professional supervision to ensure they are working in a way that is good practice, and to address other practice issues.

The supervision should be both: 

  • provided by a suitably qualified and experienced supervisor

  • based on individual needs for supervision.

It should be conducted in one of the following ways:

  • individually

  • if appropriate, in a supervisor-facilitated group

  • if specialists or professionals are suitably experienced, in a peer group.

Other obligations

You can find details of your other obligations on the following pages:

We recommend you read all of these pages to understand everything you need to do to get accredited, stay accredited and conduct FDR in accordance with the Family Law Act and the FDR Regulations.