Haley v Haley: Family law arbitration and the new frontier of private ordering

Haley v Haley is required reading for anyone interested in family law dispute resolution or issues of access to justice. The case concerns family arbitration and, importantly, changes the test for challenging arbitral awards, making it easier to do so. This is connected to concerns about making arbitration more appealing in the family law context, which has implications for family law dispute resolution more broadly. Whilst separating couples have always been encouraged to settle outside of the court process, connected to an idea of private ordering, Haley marks a new frontier. Until now private ordering was also intended to ensure substantively better outcomes. This is no longer the case, and the attempt to divert more cases to arbitration in this judgment may compound existing issues of access to justice.