"In my first week, the full court heard five appeals from me and have already published those five judgments.

"I applaud this new-found work ethic, though I note that it still doesn't match the industry of every one of us [in the FCC] every week of the year."

The snipe reflects the long-standing tensions between the Family Court and the FCC over their respective workloads, with the FCC handling more than 80 per cent of all family law matters.

'Despair'

In his memo, Judge Vasta said the court was under so much pressure "it would be understandable if we just gave in to despair".

In the three appeals reported in the press, Judge Vasta was criticised for a series of basic errors of law and fact and being rude to litigants. He jailed a father of two for contempt of court, ordered a same-sex couple baptise their child and was so hostile in the third that the wife backed her estranged husband's appeal.

In another, the Family Court said Judge Vasta's order that a man not file any matter without permission from the FCC – effectively a declaration that he is a vexatious litigant – was unfair and ordered a new hearing.

There has been speculation that the rush of judgments was a deliberate move to stymie a reported push to promote Judge Vasta to the Family Court and/or make him deputy chief judge of the FCC.


Family Court judges and practitioners have been privately scathing about the expertise of many FCC judges on family law in the face of a federal government plan to merge the two courts. The merger legislation has passed the House of Representatives, but is long odds to get through the Senate before the May election.

Judge Vasta said the FCC was "under considerable strain".

"We currently have four judges who are either personally sick or ar dealing with spouses that are quite sick. On top of that we have had two of our hardest workers leave our ranks …

"Given our current predicament, it would understandable if we just gave in to despair. But it is not a time to panic, nor is it the time to throw our hands up in the air believing the system will never get better.

"I can tell you that Will, Robert [deputy chief justice of the Family Court Robert McClelland] and I will keep fighting to make the system better."

Judge Vasta said he had "the privilege of leading it [the FCC) these past two weeks" and thanked his colleagues for their support.

'Tremendous strain'

The rush of adverse appeal judgments led to one senior lawyer to tell The Australian Financial Review that Judge Vasta would be on any short list of Australia's worst judges. The Law Council of Australia said it was "very troubled " by the judgments and that it reinforced the need for a federal judicial commission to handle complaints.


"There is a tremendous strain on a person when there is a bombardment of criticism and I am not immune to that," Judge Vasta wrote.

"Some of the criticism is well and truly justified, but some of it is not. A great deal of the criticism is quite gratuitous.

"I have been extremely grateful for the support you have all given me through notes and phone calls and general messages. The support of one's colleagues can get one through the darkest of times."

He added that he was trying to slow down and would do so after spending two weeks interstate.