{"id":"C2007A00023","name":"Family Law (Divorce Fees Validation) Act 2007","slug":"family-law-divorce-fees-validation-act-2007","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":"23 of 2007","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":7968,"registerId":"commonwealth-C2007A00023-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-03-30","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Family Law (Divorce Fees Validation) Act 2007","content":"---\nmeta-content-style-type: text/css\nmeta-content-type: application/xhtml+xml; charset=utf-8\n---\n\n?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\" standalone=\"no\"?>\n\n![](image.001.png)\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nFamily Law (Divorce Fees Validation) Act 2007\n\n \n\nNo. 23, 2007\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nAn Act to validate certain increases in court fees, and for related purposes\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nContents\n\n1 Short title\n\n2 Commencement\n\n3 Increase in divorce fee for certain courts\n\n \n\n![](image.001.png)\n\n \n\n \n\nFamily Law (Divorce Fees Validation) Act 2007\n\nNo. 23, 2007\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nAn Act to validate certain increases in court fees, and for related purposes\n\n[Assented to 15 March 2007]\n\nThe Parliament of Australia enacts:\n\n1  Short title\n\n  This Act may be cited as the Family Law (Divorce Fees Validation) Act 2007.\n\n2  Commencement\n\n  This Act commences on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.\n\n3  Increase in divorce fee for certain courts\n\n (1) If a proceeding under the Family Law Act 1975 for a divorce order in relation to a marriage:\n\n (a) was instituted:\n\n (i) in a court constituted by a stipendiary magistrate who was the Principal Registrar, or a Registrar, of the Family Court of Western Australia; or\n\n (ii) in another court for transfer to a court referred to in subparagraph (i); and\n\n (b) was instituted on or after 1 July 2005 and before 1 July 2006;\n\nthe amount of the filing fee payable for the proceeding is taken to have been $334.\n\n (2) If a proceeding under the Family Law Act 1975 for a divorce order in relation to a marriage:\n\n (a) was instituted:\n\n (i) in a court constituted by a stipendiary magistrate who was the Principal Registrar, or a Registrar, of the Family Court of Western Australia; or\n\n (ii) in another court for transfer to a court referred to in subparagraph (i); and\n\n (b) was instituted on or after 1 July 2006 and before 9 October 2006;\n\nthe amount of the filing fee payable for the proceeding is taken to have been $352.\n\n \n\n[Minister’s second reading speech made in—\n\nHouse of Representatives on 7 February 2007\n\nSenate on 26 February 2007]\n\n(1/07)\n\n \n","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Act confines itself to validating specific past increases to divorce filing fees for narrowly defined court situations and date ranges. It does not broaden into new subject matter or extend ongoing powers; it simply provides retrospective legal certainty for those specific fee amounts. Therefore it does not represent a change of scope beyond its original, limited purpose."},"complexity_factors":["Very short statute (3 sections: short title, commencement, operative validation)","Two operative subsections with simple conditional logic (two distinct date ranges)","Single external cross-reference to the Family Law Act 1975","No defined-term section in this Act; relies on ordinary language and reference to court constitutions","Use of a single legal fiction phrase: \"is taken to have been\", which is straightforward but important to apply retrospectively","Limited geographic and temporal scope reduces complexity"],"plain_english_summary":"**What this Act does (short):**\n\n- The Act retrospectively fixes (\"validates\") the amount of the court filing fee for certain divorce applications lodged in specified Western Australian family-court contexts during two short past periods in 2005–2006.  It treats those past filings as if the higher fees had lawfully applied.\n\n**Who it affects:**\n\n- People who filed for a divorce under the Family Law Act 1975 in the relevant Western Australian court settings during the listed date ranges (see sections 3(1) and 3(2)).\n- The courts and government agencies that collected or accounted for those filing fees.\n\n**Mechanics (how it works):**\n\n- Section 3(1): If a divorce proceeding under the Family Law Act 1975 was started either in a court constituted by a stipendiary magistrate who was the Principal Registrar or a Registrar of the Family Court of Western Australia, or was started in some other court for transfer to such a court, and it was instituted on or after 1 July 2005 but before 1 July 2006, then the filing fee for that proceeding is taken to have been $334.\n\n- Section 3(2): If the same sort of proceeding as above was instituted on or after 1 July 2006 but before 9 October 2006, then the filing fee for that proceeding is taken to have been $352.\n\n- The Act comes into force on the day it received Royal Assent (section 2). The short title is the Family Law (Divorce Fees Validation) Act 2007 (section 1).\n\n**Why this matters (purpose and practical effect):**\n\n- The statutory wording \"is taken to have been\" creates a legal fiction: it says that for legal and administrative purposes the specified fee amounts applied at the earlier dates even if there was doubt or error about the lawfulness of those fee increases when they were originally charged.\n\n- Concrete consequences: applicants who paid those fees are treated as having lawfully paid $334 or $352 (as applicable). That reduces legal uncertainty about refunds or challenges based on alleged invalid fee setting. It also clarifies fee-accounting for the courts and government.\n\n**Costs, incentives and trade-offs (practical test of the stated purpose):**\n\n- Who pays: the statute affects past payers of the filing fees (individual applicants) only insofar as it confirms the fee amounts they were charged. It removes a potential basis for those applicants to seek refunds if fees had been increased improperly.\n\n- Who benefits: government and the courts benefit from reduced liability for refunds and from administrative certainty. The benefit is concentrated (government/court accounts); any cost (loss of refunds to some filers) is diffuse across past filers.\n\n- Implementation risk and administrative impact: minimal ongoing compliance burden because the change is retrospective and narrow. Administrative work may have been needed to adjust records or to close fee-related disputes.\n\n- Effect on private choice and markets: negligible. This is an administrative validation of court fees and does not create ongoing regulatory obligations or change future fee-setting processes directly. It does not affect private businesses or market competition.\n\n**Note on legal linkage:** the Act operates by reference to proceedings under the Family Law Act 1975 and to particular court constitutions in Western Australia (see section 3)."},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation remains tightly focused on its original purpose: validating specific divorce fee increases in Western Australian courts for a defined historical period. There is no evidence of scope creep or expansion beyond this narrow technical fix."},"complexity_factors":["Extremely short: only 3 sections and 2 operative subsections","No defined terms section; all terms used are ordinary language or reference external statutes","Simple conditional logic: two date ranges with identical structure","Single cross-reference to the Family Law Act 1975","No exceptions, exemptions, or nested conditions","Narrow, retrospective application to a specific jurisdiction (Western Australia) and specific time window"],"plain_english_summary":"This law fixes a technical problem with divorce filing fees in Western Australia. \n\n**What happened:** Between July 2005 and October 2006, some people paid the wrong amount when filing for divorce in certain Western Australian courts. The fees were supposed to go up, but there was confusion about whether the increases were legally valid.\n\n**What this law does:** It retrospectively validates (backdates and makes legal) two specific fee increases:\n- **$334** for divorces filed between 1 July 2005 and 30 June 2006\n- **$352** for divorces filed between 1 July 2006 and 8 October 2006\n\n**Who it affects:** People who filed for divorce in Western Australian courts during this specific period, particularly those who dealt with a stipendiary magistrate (a type of judicial officer) who was also a registrar of the Family Court of Western Australia.\n\n**Why it matters:** Without this law, the fee increases might have been challenged as invalid. This could have created chaos—some divorces might have been technically improper, and the government might have had to refund money. This law cleans up the mess and confirms everyone paid the right amount."},"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"Unauthenticated. Configure AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY or use a provider module. Learn more: https://ai-sdk.dev/unauthenticated-ai-gateway","source":"analysis-cron"}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/family-law-divorce-fees-validation-act-2007","history":"/api/acts/family-law-divorce-fees-validation-act-2007/history","analysis":"/api/acts/family-law-divorce-fees-validation-act-2007/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/family-law-divorce-fees-validation-act-2007/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/family-law-divorce-fees-validation-act-2007/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/family-law-divorce-fees-validation-act-2007/documents"}}