Dubbo and Central West residents involved in Family Court action could end up waiting up to four years for their disputes to be resolved, according to Orana Law Society President Andrew Boog.
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"It would be fantastic if it got good enough to say it was in disarray," Mr Boog said when asked about delays in the court system.
"You don't measure the delay in weeks or months, but in years.
"It's particular galling because we're talking about kids."
Mr Boog said the delays essentially forced families to "press the pause button" on their lives for several years.
"How do you live? How do you decide what school your kids go to or whether you take that promotion which will take you out of town?
"How do you make those decisions if you can't converse and reach sensible decisions with your ex-partner?"
Family Court delays were caused by a lack of judges, Mr Boog said.
"It's as simple as that.
"Everybody is all dressed up and ready to go but we can't get to the judge.
"The judges that are there are working ridiculously hard but they can only get through so much."
Mr Boog said "we are desperately in need of quite a number of more appointments".
An Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) inquiry into the family law system found there was a "chronic lack of funding" for the appointment of judges.
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The inquiry's final report was released in March and found the family law system was "deprived of resources to such an extent that it cannot deliver the quality of justice expected of a country like Australia".
Sixty recommendations were made to fix problems in the system but the federal government has not yet implemented any.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government was considering the ALRC recommendations when he announced another inquiry into the family law system last week.
To help parents resolve issues as simply, quickly and cheaply as possible, Mr Morrison said the government would attempt to merge the Family Court and Federal Circuit Court later this year.
