Federal Magistrates Court of Australia

Practice and Procedures

Specialist Panels

Specialist Panels in General Federal Law

The Court has established specialist panels for its general federal law jurisdictions in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. Similar panels will be established in other registries.

Panels comprise federal magistrates with expertise in that particular jurisdiction. Current panels include:

    Commercial – including bankruptcy, copyright and trade practices
    Admiralty
    Migration and administrative
    Human rights
    Industrial
    National security

It is not intended that there will be any change to the allocation of industrial law proceedings from 1 July 2009 with the addition of the Fair Work division. Those Federal Magistrates who currently have industrial law matters docketed to them will continue to be allocated such proceedings in accordance with the usual listing practices.

See: Notice to Practitioners – Specialist panels in general federal law in the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia

See: National General Federal Law and Child Support Panels, Summary of Panel Arrangement as at 13 August 2009

Information for practitioners:

Information for practitioners is available in the following Court jurisdictions:

Admiralty: Conduct of maritime and admiralty work in the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia

Migration: Notices to Litigants and Practitioners regarding migration proceedings in the Federal Magistrates Court (NSW and Victoria) December 2005

Specialist Panels in Family Law

National Child Support Panel

The Court has established a national specialist panel for its child support jurisdiction. Other specialist panels have been established in some areas of the Court's general federal law jurisdiction. These panels comprise federal magistrates with expertise in that particular jurisdiction.

See: Notice to litigants and practioners - specialist panel for child support