No right to appeal from Qld Children’s Ct to Court of Appeal: Court of Appeal

The Queensland Court of Appeal has again stated, this time in the recent case of CAO v Department of Child Safety, that there is no right of appeal from a District Court judge sitting as the Children’s Court, when that judge has already sat as an appeal court, from a magistrate sitting as a Children’s Court.

Keane JA commented:

The present case affords an example of the kind of prolongation of litigation, and undesirable uncertainty as to the position of the children affected thereby, which the legislature can be taken to have intended to avoid by providing only one level of appeal under the [Child Protection] Act.