CJ Nicholson - A man held in disrepute and whos credibility is nil, is a view held by many.

The Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia says a major overhaul of Family Court rules will see more people resolving disputes before expensive litigation.

Justice Alastair Nicholson has announced a revamped set of court rules, which will encourage people to behave reasonably and negotiate in good faith.

It follows three years of research involving retired and serving judges and hundreds of legal and professional interest groups in Australia, England, the US and Canada.

Speaking in Brisbane, Justice Nicholson says one of the main objectives is to discourage a confrontational approach to resolving disputes.

"The focus of these rules is resolving disputes and parties are encouraged at all times to concentrate on the settlement of their dispute in the prevention and resolution phase of the case, to make a genuine attempt to settle the case before they commence it," Justice Nicholson said.

Justice Nicholson believes it will improve and increase access to justice in family law matters.

"It's amazing how many people commence proceeding that never should have been commenced," he said.

"There will be a penalty if that happens, and the penalty will be that they may well be liable to pay the costs incurred by the other party if they do not engage in that pre-emptive attempt to resolve a dispute."

He says the old rules were outdated, poorly structured and incomprehensible to everyone who used the courts, including judges and lawyers.

"There are some major changes in these rules and numerous minor ones, but overall, I think we have been successful in creating simple modern rules which will significantly increase access to justice in the family law jurisdiction," he said.

"If you look at the new rules there are 25 chapters instead of 41 and there are 25 prescribed forms instead of 84."

The new rules begin at the end of the month.

Justice Neil Buckley, who convened the group that drafted the rules, is confident it will make court process quicker, cheaper and less adversarial.

"It's going to be an enormous improvement for everyday people because the rules are expressed in simple language," Justice Buckley said.

"We felt for some time that the rules had become to complex and they were well and truly outdated, the forms had become far too complex."

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