Retiring Magistrate Colin Strofield was humbled by an outpouring of praise at a tribute this month for his work addressing domestic violence.
The domestic violence court pioneer was saluted by a panel of speakers at a Bond University Faculty of Law Twilight Seminar at Robina on the Gold Coast on 16 July.
Judging Domestic Violence: Recognising the Work of Magistrate Colin Strofield highlighted his efforts to address domestic and family violence over his more than 16 years as a judicial officer.
Magistrate Strofield presided in Brisbane, Charleville, Holland Park and Southport, including in the Specialist Domestic and Family Violence Court.
Bond Executive Dean of Faculty of Law Professor Nick James reflected on the good that had been done in those courts.
“I think members of the legal profession have such an enormous potential to do good in the community, but sadly it is a potential that often is not realised,” Nick said.
“But in this case, we have a member of our noble profession who has realised that potential in so many ways.”
The Bond University seminar.
Amanda Ovens, Legal Aid Queensland Senior Lawyer in Violence Prevention and Women’s Advocacy, spoke of Magistrate Strofield as an innovator and educator.
“The contribution that he has made to addressing DV in our community was so broad and so vast that it was suggested to me that I might need to keep it short to allow some words from my fellow panellists and other speakers,” Amanda said.
“I wasn’t sure how I would be able to keep it short for a man who has had such an illustrious career.”
Amanda said the guest of honour became an “inaugural specialist magistrate” at Holland Park in 2011, where he set up “integrated services” to deal with domestic and family violence.
“He recognised that responding to the scourge that domestic violence is in our community, requires passionate practitioners from various disciplines, all working together in a collaborative, trauma-informed approach to their practice to effect meaningful change,” she said.
She noted that four years later, the Not Now, Not Ever report by the Special Taskforce on Domestic and Family Violence in Queensland recommended an integrated services model for courts.
She further noted that there were now specialist domestic violence courts in Southport, Beenleigh, Brisbane, Cairns, Mt Isa, Palm Island and Townsville.
Amanda also spoke of Magistrate Strofield’s outreach activities for professional development and student education.
“We say farewell to you, as magistrate, a man who has shown resilience, composure, compassion, and understanding during his time on the bench,” she concluded.
Daniella Pratt, Managing Senior Lawyer of Family Law and Domestic Violence at Caxton Legal Centre, said the change in the court’s approach could be clearly seen.
“Every person in that court plays a vital role. We have volunteers who check in people who are arriving for court, we have security personnel that aggrieveds and respondents are sitting in areas so that they’re not together, we have registry staff who print out court paperwork and documents for parties if they’ve forgotten theirs on the day, and then of course, we have our wonderful social workers, who work not only alongside our duty lawyers but can also assist parties who are there with private representation,” Daniella said.
Magistrate Strofield is farewelled.
She said the experience of the legal system could make a crucial difference to the path forward for both respondents and perpetrators.
“This is an area that I can genuinely say that Magistrate Strofield has excelled in,” she said.
Allowing parties to feel heard was something he had “done beautifully”, and parties could leave a courtroom feeling positive and empowered, Daniella said.
“I can truly say that I am a better lawyer because of appearing before Magistrate Strofield,” she said.
“Magistrate Strofield is consistent in his approach, he knows all of the case law and that Act like the back of his hand.”
As a final speaker of the evening, the father of six then played down his work, pointing to the “contagiousness of people wanting to help”.
“The ideas came from other people; I just built on those ideas and to see people embracing the change that we wanted to bring about just kept me wanting to make things better,” Magistrate Strofield said.
He said it was comforting to see change but stakeholders should not be satisfied.
“We’re getting better. We’re better than what we were. Every day we need to stop and think about what we did yesterday, and can we do what we did yesterday better tomorrow.”
Magistrate Strofield said he was inspired by those involved in the domestic violence court, who were always looking after people and learning.
“The one that really gets me as an inspiration – you might not see it, the practitioners don’t see it, but I see it – nine times out of 10, the woman, the aggrieved, will turn to me and mouth two words ‘thank you’, and if I could measure that, and turn it into gold, I’d be a multi-millionaire,” he said.
He summed up by stating he believed there were two pillars to arresting domestic violence: education and accountability.
“You have to be accountable for what you do, the community has to be accountable for how it responds – I have to be accountable, you have to be accountable, we all need to hold ourselves accountable to protect those people who are being subjected to DV,” he said.
“I don’t for a moment believe that domestic violence itself is increasing – reporting is increasing through education and accountability. I think that’s one of the greatest achievements.”
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