The Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia would like practitioners to be aware of Fair Work small claims changes along with fee changes and form updates from 1 July 2023.
1. Fair work small claims jurisdiction change
The monetary cap for recovering unpaid entitlements via the Fair Work small claims process (filing a Fair Work Application: Small Claims – Form 5) will increase from $20,000 to $100,000 on 1 July 2023.
For more information about the small claims process, see Fair work: Small claims on the website, which will be updated from 1 July 2023.
2. Fee changes
The fees payable in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 1) and (Division 2) change on 1 July 2023.
Details of the new fees are available on the website:
The Courts do not set the fees payable. Fees are set by the following Federal Government regulations based on CPI calculations:
- Family Law (Fees) Regulations 2022
- Federal Court and Federal Circuit and Family Court Regulations 2022.
3. Form updates
The Chief Justice has approved changes (as outlined below) to the following court forms.
The new versions will not be available on the website (www.fcfcoa.gov.au/resources/forms) until 1 July 2023.
A grace period for the use of the old forms will extend until close of filing on 29 September 2023.
All jurisdictions:
Affidavit
An all jurisdictions affidavit has been in place since the commencement of the FCFCOA on 1 September 2021. After feedback, the Courts are introducing new affidavit forms for both family law and child support, and migration and general federal law proceedings:
- Affidavit – Family law and child support proceedings
- Affidavit – General Federal Law and Migration proceedings
Notice of address for service
The Notice of address for service has been updated to include an additional question in Part B, ‘Are you giving notice of a change of legal representation?’.
Family law:
Affidavit: Translation of Marriage Certificate
Part B of the Affidavit: Translation of Marriage Certificate has been updated to clarify that the translator is NAATI accredited.
Counselling certificate for applicants married less than 2 years
The reference to physically attaching the Counselling certificate for applicants married less than 2 year to the application for divorce has been removed.
Application for consent orders
The Application for consent orders instruction pages have been updated. The order of the table at question 21 has been amended and the eFiling tick box at the bottom of each statement of truth has been removed. All consent orders must be signed, then scanned and eFiled.
General federal law:
Application – Fair Work Division
The Application – Fair Work Division instruction page has been updated to reflect the Fair Work small claims monetary cap change from $20,000 to $100,000. No change has been made to the substance of the form.
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