Attorney-General Christian Porter is facing a backlash over recent appointments to the Family Court after a "very new" judge with limited experience in family law was appointed chief justice of the court ahead of its planned merger with the Federal Circuit Court.

Mr Porter announced last week that former Victorian silk Will Alstergren, who was appointed by former attorney-general George Brandis as chief judge of the lower-level Federal Circuit Court (FCC) in October last year, would take the reins as Family Court chief justice from December 10.

Attorney-General Christian Porter has courted controversy by appointing an inexperienced family law judge as the chief justice of the Family Court. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The new chief justice will retain his role as chief judge of the FCC, as the Coalition pushes ahead with a plan to merge the two courts into a new mega-court to be called the Federal Circuit and Family Court. The FCC already deals with a high volume of family law cases alongside migration matters.

As part of the merger, the existing appeals function of the Family Court will be removed and appeals from the new court will be heard by the Federal Court.