More help for women going through court

COURTS have traditionally not been kind to women traumatised by family violence.

It’s an all-too-common story that women who’ve suffered through years of abuse are often forced to relive their trauma again and again, in front of their perpetrators, as they fight their way through divorce and child custody proceedings.

But Tasmania’s legal community wants to bring an end to those dark days, and help as many women as possible navigate their way seamlessly through a “trauma-informed”, contemporary court environment.

The Legal Aid Commission of Tasmania and the Women’s Legal Service Tasmania yesterday signed an historic memorandum of understanding to provide better-coordinated family violence services.

“I think that what people with lived experience of family violence would say is that nothing’s changed,” Women’s Legal Service CEO Yvette Cehtel said.

“One of the issues we’re hearing about is the issue of using the legal systems to perpetuate the abuse.

“What I mean by that is having a parenting order or something in place, and breaching that just to wear down the other person and expend all their emotional resources and their capacity to respond.”

She said lawyers weren’t necessarily insensitive to women’s issues, but may have had limited exposure and understanding of problems like violence and emotional abuse.

Legal Aid director Vincenzo Caltabiano said the community was far more aware of family violence issues than in the past, and that included Tasmania’s lawyers.

But he said everyone in the legal system needed “to do a lot more to deepen that understanding”. The two organisations will focus on trauma-informed training, “warm referrals” and providing women with easy access to service providers.