Federal Circuit Court of Australia

There has been a progressive shift over the past 10 years in the balance of workload between the Federal Circuit Court and the Family Court of Australia, with the majority of all family law matters and most divorces now heard in the Federal Circuit Court. This has resulted in the Family Court of Australia becoming a smaller court which manages all appeals and deals with the most lengthy and complex family law cases.

The Federal Circuit Court's family law jurisdiction covers:

• Parenting – an order regarding the child/children of a marriage or de facto relationship that has broken down.
• Financial – an order relating to the division of property or payment of maintenance following the breakdown of a marriage or eligible de facto relationship.
• Divorce – all applications for divorce, except orders relating to nullity and validity of marriage and divorce.
• Child support – certain applications and appeals.
• Child maintenance – an order for child maintenance in special circumstances.
• Parentage declarations and testing – an order declaring that a person is a parent of a child/children or to assist in determining the parentage of a child/children.
• Contravention – an application alleging a breach of a court order.
• Injunctions – an application for an injunction in a current or pending matter.
• Location and recovery – an order for information or the ability to publish information about a child/children's location or the return of a child/children to a party.

The Federal Circuit Court shares jurisdiction with the Federal Court of Australia. The largest volume of the court's general federal law work is in bankruptcy applications and migration. The Federal Circuit Court deals with 95 per cent of all migration applications that are filed in the federal courts. In addition, the Court deals with a significant number of industrial law and human rights matters.

The Federal Circuit Court's general federal law jurisdiction covers the following:

The Court has original jurisdiction under the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 (Cth). The Court, on remittal from the Federal Court, hears appeals from the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

• In personam actions (claims against a specific person or company) such as freight claims and seafarer's wages.
• In rem actions remitted by the Federal Circuit Court of Australia and state Supreme Courts.

All civil claims and matters under the Bankruptcy Act 1966, except those requiring jury trials. The vast majority of bankruptcy court cases in Australia are heard by The Federal Circuit Court (92% in 2004-5).[6]

The Court has civil jurisdiction with respect to claims under the following provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (formerly known as the Trade Practices Act 1974):

• Section 46 (Misuse of Market Power)
• Section IVB (Industry Codes)
• Part XI (Application of the Australian Consumer Law as a law of the Commonwealth), and
• Schedule 2 (Australian Consumer Law).

The Court can provide injunctive relief and award damages of up to $750 000. The Court also has civil jurisdiction with respect to claims under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009. There is provision in certain proceedings for a litigant to elect that an application for compensation be dealt with as a small claims proceeding.

This jurisdiction includes hearing matters relating to (but not limited to) unfair trade practices, product safety and information matters, consumer protection matters, pyramid selling, and importation and manufacture of defective goods.

Federal unlawful discrimination matters under the Australian Human Rights Commissions Act 1986 relating to complaints under the:

• Age Discrimination Act 2004
• Disability Discrimination Act 1992
• Racial Discrimination Act 1974, and
• Sex Discrimination Act 1984.

The Court has concurrent jurisdiction with the Federal Court of Australia to hear and determine complaints of unlawful discrimination based on sex, age, race and disability. Its power to grant relief is wide – it may, for example, grant unlimited damages.

The court has concurrent jurisdiction with the Federal Court for matters under the:

• Fair Work Act 2009
• Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Act 2009 , and
• the Fair Work Act 2009 confers small claims jurisdiction on the Court for various matters if the compensation is not more than $20 000.

The Court also has jurisdiction in relation to certain matters under the Independent Contractors Act 2006. This jurisdiction is exercised by the Court's Fair Work Division.

• Copyright - The Court may hear civil claims and matters, under parts V, VAA, IX and Section 248J of the Copyright Act 1968 such as claims for injunctions and damages for breach of copyright.
• Trade Mark/Design – From 15 April 2013, the Federal Circuit Court will have certain jurisdiction under the Trade Marks Act 1995 and the Designs Act 2003. The jurisdiction is comparable to that exercised by the Federal Court except that it will not be able to hear an appeal from another court.

Reform in 2005 limited first instance jurisdiction to the Federal Circuit Court and the High Court to review administrative decisions made by the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, the Refugee Review Tribunal and the Migration Review Tribunal.[7] The Court does not have jurisdiction to undertake a merits review of these types of decisions.

Enforcing determinations of the Privacy Commissioner and private sector adjudicators under the Privacy Act 1988.