Her Honour Judge Jacquelyn Moran was appointed to the Family Court in 2003 and became Principal Family Court Judge in November 2018. She is New Zealand’s fifth Principal Family Court Judge, and the first woman to hold the role since the Court’s establishment in 1981.
Born in Ngāruawāhia, Judge Moran was educated at Baradene College in Auckland and the University of Auckland, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws in 1979. After admission to the bar in 1980, she practised for 23 years, primarily in family law, in Ōtāhuhu, Whanganui, and Invercargill.
Her Honour co-founded the Southland Abuse Intervention Programme, chaired the Southland Care and Protection Resource Panel, and served as President of the Southland Family Courts Association. She also contributed to the Southland District Law Society Family Law Committee, as well as the New Zealand Law
Society’s Family Law Section and its Matrimonial and De Facto Property Committee.
Upon her appointment as a District Court Judge with a Family Court warrant, Judge Moran was based in Christchurch. For six years, she served as the Administrative Family Court Judge for the Southern Region, and briefly acted as Principal Family Court Judge in 2014. She has been a member of the Canterbury Family Justice Network and played a leading role in the design and national rollout of the Early Intervention Process under the Care of Children Act 2004.
Between 2013 and 2014, she was also a judicial member of the working party on the Family Court reforms introduced at that time.
Born in Ngāruawāhia, Judge Moran was educated at Baradene College in Auckland and the University of Auckland, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws in 1979. After admission to the bar in 1980, she practised for 23 years, primarily in family law, in Ōtāhuhu, Whanganui, and Invercargill.
Her Honour co-founded the Southland Abuse Intervention Programme, chaired the Southland Care and Protection Resource Panel, and served as President of the Southland Family Courts Association. She also contributed to the Southland District Law Society Family Law Committee, as well as the New Zealand Law
Society’s Family Law Section and its Matrimonial and De Facto Property Committee.
Upon her appointment as a District Court Judge with a Family Court warrant, Judge Moran was based in Christchurch. For six years, she served as the Administrative Family Court Judge for the Southern Region, and briefly acted as Principal Family Court Judge in 2014. She has been a member of the Canterbury Family Justice Network and played a leading role in the design and national rollout of the Early Intervention Process under the Care of Children Act 2004.
Between 2013 and 2014, she was also a judicial member of the working party on the Family Court reforms introduced at that time.