Children's Commissioner Megan Mitchell has questioned whether family courts can properly deal with the damage family violence does to children at the centre of custody battles.

And Family Court Chief Justice Diana Bryant said the courts are "overwhelmed" by urgent applications involving children and need for greater resources to properly assess family and domestic violence allegations at an early stage.

"We need to support the system to better respond to children and not place them at further risk." Credit:John Donegan

Ms Mitchell last year investigated the effects of family violence on children, with almost a third of the 62 submissions she received from stakeholders raising concerns about the family law system. There was evidence that courts had placed children in homes where they were at risk of being abused or exposed to violence, she said.

"I think there are serious questions about whether the court has the capacity to correctly respond to family violence generally, particularly where children are concerned," she said.