The Columbus Pilot project ('Columbus') was implemented in the Family Court of Western Australia (FCWA) in July 2001. Conceptualised as an inter-disciplinary early intervention process in matters where there were allegations of child abuse, domestic violence or family violence where there were risk concerns for the children, Columbus has since become a catalyst for a number of changes within the Western Australian family law system.

Matters assigned to Columbus were individually case managed through a series of conferences that were jointly chaired by a designated counsellor and registrar team. The aim of the process was to achieve a safe, stable contact or residence regime. Where this could not be achieved without judicial direction, the matter was referred back to the formal court process and proceeded to trial.

Columbus has been evaluated at various stages of implementation (Murphy and Pike, 2002; 2003; 2004). The aim of the evaluation has been to assess the Columbus pilot against a number of benchmark indicators using a multi-method approach. This paper reports some of the feedback from the parents, children, and stakeholders. Data were generated from a series of semi-structured interviews with 19 parents, seven children whose parents had participated in the Pilot, and a range of court personnel, lawyers, child representatives as well as staff from agencies who support the Court.