{"id":"F2021L01212","name":"Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Rules 2021","slug":"federal-circuit-and-family-court-of-australia-consequential-amendments-and-transitional-provisions-r","collection":"legislative_instrument","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":440980,"registerId":"F2021L01212-fast-fetch-1775956423871","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-12","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Rules 2021","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![Commonwealth Coat of Arms of Australia](image.001.jpeg)\n\n \n\nFederal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Rules 2021\n\nI, Michaelia Cash, Attorney‑General, make the following rules.\n\nDated 3 August 2021\n\nMichaelia Cash\n\nAttorney‑General\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n \n\nContents\n\nPart 1—Preliminary\n\n1 Name\n\n2 Commencement\n\n3 Authority\n\n4 Definitions\n\nPart 2—Saving of regulations in relation to services requested before 1 September 2021\n\n5 Saving of the Federal Court and Federal Circuit Court Regulation 2012\n\n6 Saving of the Family Law (Fees) Regulation 2012\n\nPart 3—Transitional provisions for proceedings that are ongoing as at 1 September 2021\n\n7 Proceedings before the Family Court of Australia before 1 September 2021\n\n8 Proceedings before the Federal Circuit Court of Australia before 1 September 2021\n\n \n\nPart 1—Preliminary\n\n \n\n1  Name\n\n  This instrument is the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Rules 2021.\n\n2  Commencement\n\n (1) Each provision of this instrument specified in column 1 of the table commences, or is taken to have commenced, in accordance with column 2 of the table. Any other statement in column 2 has effect according to its terms.\n\n \n\n- Commencement information\n- Column 1 Column 2 Column 3\n- Provisions Commencement Date/Details\n- 1. The whole of this instrument At the same time as the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Act 2021. 1 September 2021\n\n\nNote: This table relates only to the provisions of this instrument as originally made. It will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this instrument.\n\n (2) Any information in column 3 of the table is not part of this instrument. Information may be inserted in this column, or information in it may be edited, in any published version of this instrument.\n\n3  Authority\n\n  This instrument is made under item 38 of Schedule 5 to the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Act 2021.\n\n4  Definitions\n\n  In this instrument:\n\nFCFCA Act means the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Act 2021, and includes any instruments made under that Act.\n\nFCFCA CA and TP Act means the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Act 2021.\n\nPart 2—Saving of regulations in relation to services requested before 1 September 2021\n\n \n\n5  Saving of the Federal Court and Federal Circuit Court Regulation 2012\n\n  Despite the repeal of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia Act 1999 by the FCFCA CA and TP Act, the Federal Court and Federal Circuit Court Regulation 2012, as in force immediately before 1 September 2021, continues to apply in relation to a fee for a service requested under that regulation before that day.\n\nNote: The Federal Court and Federal Circuit Court Regulation 2012, as in force immediately before 1 September 2021, was made under the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 and the Federal Circuit Court of Australia Act 1999. The Federal Circuit Court of Australia Act 1999 is repealed by the FCFCA CA and TP Act on 1 September 2021.\n\n6  Saving of the Family Law (Fees) Regulation 2012\n\n  Despite the repeal of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia Act 1999 by the FCFCA CA and TP Act, the Family Law (Fees) Regulation 2012, as in force immediately before 1 September 2021, continues to apply in relation to a fee for a service requested under that regulation before that day.\n\nNote: The Family Law (Fees) Regulation 2012, as in force immediately before 1 September 2021, was made under the Family Law Act 1975 and the Federal Circuit Court of Australia Act 1999. The Federal Circuit Court of Australia Act 1999 is repealed by the FCFCA CA and TP Act on 1 September 2021.\n\nPart 3—Transitional provisions for proceedings that are ongoing as at 1 September 2021\n\n \n\n7  Proceedings before the Family Court of Australia before 1 September 2021\n\n (1) This section applies in relation to a proceeding if:\n\n (a) immediately before 1 September 2021, the proceeding, or part of the proceeding, was in the Family Court of Australia; and\n\n (b) the proceeding had not been determined before that day.\n\n (2) For the purposes of the FCFCA Act, on and after 1 September 2021, that proceeding is taken to be a proceeding in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 1).\n\n8  Proceedings before the Federal Circuit Court of Australia before 1 September 2021\n\n (1) This section applies in relation to a proceeding if:\n\n (a) immediately before 1 September 2021, the proceeding, or part of the proceeding, was in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia; and\n\n (b) the proceeding had not been determined before that day.\n\n (2) For the purposes of the FCFCA Act, on and after 1 September 2021, that proceeding is taken to be a proceeding in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2).\n","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":3,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The instrument limits its effect to: (a) preserving the Federal Court and Federal Circuit Court Regulation 2012 and the Family Law (Fees) Regulation 2012 for services requested before 1 September 2021 (ss 5–6), and (b) treating ongoing proceedings immediately before that date as proceedings in Division 1 or Division 2 of the newly constituted court (ss 7–8). It does not create new fee regimes or new substantive obligations beyond these saving and transitional measures."},"complexity_factors":["Limited subject matter: only savings of two fee regulations and two transitional reclassification rules (ss 5–8).","Date-dependent effects: central reliance on a single cutoff date (1 September 2021) for applying the savings and transitions (s 2, ss 5–8).","Cross-references to repealed and existing instruments: requires tracking which regulations applied immediately before repeal and understanding their content (ss 5–6 and accompanying notes).","Potential factual disputes about timing: administrative burden to determine when a service was requested or whether a proceeding was ongoing at the cut-off (ss 5–8).","Narrow scope but legal significance: while text is short and mechanistic, effects interact with other substantive rules in other instruments, requiring cross-instrument checking (s 4 definitions and notes to ss 5–6)."],"plain_english_summary":"What this instrument does\n\n- This instrument preserves certain existing fee rules and reassigns ongoing family law cases after a court structure change that took effect on 1 September 2021.\n\nHow it works, mechanically\n\n- Commencement: The instrument starts at the same time as the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Act 2021 — taken to be 1 September 2021 (s 2).\n- Saving of pre-existing fee regulations: Fees for services that were requested before 1 September 2021 remain governed by the Federal Court and Federal Circuit Court Regulation 2012 (s 5) and the Family Law (Fees) Regulation 2012 (s 6), each as they were immediately before 1 September 2021. That is, the old rules continue to apply to those earlier requests even though the underlying Federal Circuit Court of Australia Act 1999 is repealed (see notes to ss 5–6).\n- Transitional reclassification of ongoing proceedings: Proceedings (or parts of proceedings) that were before the Family Court of Australia immediately before 1 September 2021 and not finally decided are treated, for the purposes of the new Act, as proceedings in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 1) (s 7). Likewise, proceedings that were before the Federal Circuit Court of Australia immediately before 1 September 2021 and not finally decided are treated as proceedings in Division 2 of the new court (s 8).\n\nWho is affected\n\n- People who requested court services before 1 September 2021: Their fee liabilities are determined under the old fee regulations in force immediately before that date (ss 5–6). Practically, this mostly affects users of federal family-court services and any persons obliged to pay those fees.\n- Parties to ongoing proceedings as at 1 September 2021: Their cases remain live but are treated as belonging to one of two divisions in the new Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (ss 7–8). Court administrators and legal practitioners must treat those files under the new court structure but with continuity of status.\n\nWhy it matters (official rationale and mechanical trade-offs)\n\n- Official rationale (as expressed by the instrument): to preserve continuity of fees and case status at the moment of the statutory repeal and reconstitution of the courts (ss 5–8). The instrument’s concrete mechanism is to “save” the old fee regulations for pre‑existing requests and to reclassify ongoing proceedings into Division 1 or Division 2 for the purposes of the new Act.\n\n- Costs, incentives and practical trade-offs:\n  - Who pays: Individuals whose services were requested before 1 September 2021 remain liable under the old fee rules (ss 5–6). That preserves existing fee entitlements and obligations rather than substituting new fee rules for those requests.\n  - Administrative burden and compliance costs: Registries and parties must determine whether a service was “requested before that day” or whether a proceeding was “immediately before 1 September 2021” in a given court (ss 5–8). That requires date-stamping and may generate additional record checks or queries from parties and their lawyers.\n  - Implementation risks and disputes: Because the instrument’s rules hinge on timing (actions or requests made before a single date), there is a concrete risk of disagreements about when a request or an aspect of a proceeding was made; resolving such disputes will require administrative or judicial clarification.\n  - Bureaucratic discretion: The instrument effects a mechanical saving and reclassification; it does not itself create new discretionary powers or new substantive rights. Any discretion will mainly arise in application (for example, how registries determine the precise timing of a request) rather than in the instrument’s text (ss 5–8).\n  - Effects on private enterprise and market actors: The instrument does not change market regulation or competition directly. It affects users of the courts (including businesses that use federal family law processes or lawyers acting for clients) by preserving pre-existing fee rules for certain requests and by changing the institutional location of ongoing proceedings (ss 5–8). Firms that provide legal services may need to advise clients about which fee regime applies and about the reclassification of proceedings, which carries modest compliance and advisory costs.\n\nWhat the instrument does not do\n\n- It does not, by itself, amend substantive rights or create new fee rules for services requested on or after 1 September 2021. It only preserves the prior fee regulations for services requested before that date (ss 5–6) and treats ongoing proceedings as belonging to Division 1 or Division 2 under the new court Act (ss 7–8).\n\nKey provisions to look at\n\n- Commencement (s 2), Authority (s 3), Definitions (s 4), saving of the two fee regulations (ss 5–6), transitional reclassification of ongoing proceedings (ss 7–8)."},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":2,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The legislation remains tightly focused on its original purpose: managing the technical transition of fee regulations and ongoing proceedings during the court merger. It does not expand beyond this transitional housekeeping function."},"complexity_factors":["Very short instrument (only 8 sections across 3 Parts)","Minimal defined terms (only 2 definitions in section 4)","Simple conditional logic limited to date-based triggers (before/after 1 September 2021)","No nested exceptions or complex cross-referencing beyond basic references to the enabling Act","Straightforward transitional mechanics: automatic transfer of proceedings based on which old court they were in","Single-layer saving provisions (old regulations continue to apply only to pre-merger service requests)"],"plain_english_summary":"This legislation is a set of rules that helps manage the merger of Australia's Family Court and Federal Circuit Court into a single new court called the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (FCFCA), which happened on 1 September 2021.\n\n**What it does:**\n- **Preserves old fee rules**: If someone requested a court service (like filing a document) before 1 September 2021 under the old courts' fee regulations, those old fee rules still apply to that service, even though the old courts technically ceased to exist.\n- **Moves ongoing cases to the new court**: Any family law or federal circuit court cases that were still running (not yet finished) on 1 September 2021 automatically transferred to the new merged court:\n  - Old Family Court cases → became Division 1 of the new FCFCA\n  - Old Federal Circuit Court cases → became Division 2 of the new FCFCA\n\n**Who it affects:**\n- People with ongoing family law or federal law court cases as of September 2021\n- Lawyers and court staff handling fee payments for services requested before the merger\n- Anyone who paid or was charged fees under the old court systems\n\n**Why it matters:**\nWithout these rules, there would be confusion about which fee structure applies to services requested just before the merger, and ongoing cases might have faced legal uncertainty about which court was handling them. This ensures a smooth transition without disrupting people's existing legal matters."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/federal-circuit-and-family-court-of-australia-consequential-amendments-and-transitional-provisions-r","history":"/api/acts/federal-circuit-and-family-court-of-australia-consequential-amendments-and-transitional-provisions-r/history","analysis":"/api/acts/federal-circuit-and-family-court-of-australia-consequential-amendments-and-transitional-provisions-r/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/federal-circuit-and-family-court-of-australia-consequential-amendments-and-transitional-provisions-r/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/federal-circuit-and-family-court-of-australia-consequential-amendments-and-transitional-provisions-r/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/federal-circuit-and-family-court-of-australia-consequential-amendments-and-transitional-provisions-r/documents"}}