Two local Family Court judges, Deputy Chief Justice John Faulks and Justice Mary Finn, are due to retire next year, having reached their statutory retirement age. So is Federal Circuit Court judge Jim Brewster.

The local retirements will prompt a significant changing of the guard at the two courts, which are already stretched, nationally, by an ever-increasing workload, according to the Law Council of Australia.

Across the country, the Federal Circuit Court is facing a mass exodus, with 12 of its judges, or almost a quarter, expected to retire in the next 12 months.

Chief Judge John Pascoe has previously warned that because of a lack of funding, understaffing and an increasing workload, the court is already struggling to keep up with cases coming before it.

Chief Judge Pascoe said in November that Attorney-General George Brandis was aware of the court's resourcing woes andtimely replacement of judges was "critical in ensuring that families in distress are dealt with as quickly as possible".

Now lawyers have expressed similar fears for the resourcing of the Federal Circuit and Family Court operating in the ACT as the three local retirements loom closer.

ACT Bar Association president Shane Gill said a failure to quickly replace the retiring judges may end up costing the ACT community.

"We know shortly there will be a large exodus from the Family and Federal Circuit Courts in Canberra," Mr Gill said.

"They're courts which deal with important issues relating to how children are going to be cared for when a marriage breaks down, how people are going to house themselves.

"Having those sort of questions delayed has an adverse impact on the lives of individuals and everyone surrounding them."

The Law Council also expressed concern about the jobs going unfilled.

Council president Duncan McConnel said lawyers had voiced concerns for years that the family law system was underresourced, and that it required extra judges to manage the growing caseload.

"Given the significant and often traumatic emotional and financial burden on separating families, and children, the government must commit to finding additional resources to address such delays," he said.

"Such a commitment requires, at the minimum, that retiring judges are replaced promptly."

He said the underfunding of federal and family courts was making access to justice problematic.

"It is particularly severe in family law," he said.

"Failure to adequately resource the family law system by replacing judges promptly will have a snowballing effect, the social and economic cost of which will continue to be felt by the community for years to come."

Mr Gill urged the government to think ahead about the local judicial replacements to ensure there were no delays in the ACT.