Federal Magistrates Court of Australia
Notice to Practitioners - Specialist panels in General Federal Law in the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia
Specialist Panels in General Federal Law
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Divisions
The Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Act 2009 included miscellaneous amendments to the Federal Magistrates Act 1999 to establish two Divisions within the Federal Magistrates Court, a Fair Work Division and a General Division. As from 1 July 2009 proceedings in the Court must be instituted, heard and determined in one of these Divisions.
The Fair Work Act 2009 confers a general jurisdiction in certain matters arising under that Act and requires that jurisdiction to be exercised in the Fair Work Division of the Court. The Fair Work (Transitional and Consequential Provisions) Act 2009 and the Fair Work (State Referral and Consequential and Other Amendments) Act 2009 respectively provide similarly in respect of matters arising under the continuing operation of the pre-July 2009 Workplace Relations Act 1996 and the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005.
The General Division will hear and determine all matters which are not required to be exercised in the Fair Work Division.
Introduction
The Federal Magistrates Court has established Panels for its general federal law jurisdictions.
The Court sees the establishment of panels in its specialist jurisdictions as an important stage in the
ongoing development of the Court. The Court believes that the Panel system will best enable it to use its judicial resources effectively according to its jurisdictions and to maintain the Court's commitment to the
economical, less formal and prompt disposition of its workload.
The Panels provide an opportunity for members to develop and maintain expertise in the jurisdictional areas
allotted. The Panels that have been, or are proposed to be established, are set out at the end of this Note. The Court advises that the Panels have been established in order to ensure that work is handled by Federal
Magistrates with expertise in the area and with a commitment to allocating appropriate priority to the cases assigned to them. The Court also advises that diary rules adopted for 2006 are intended to ensure that cases in
these jurisdictions will be dealt with generally within a target time frame of six months after filing.
The Federal Magistrates Court maintains its commitment to serving the community in rural and regional
Australia by travelling to country centres to hear cases when requested and facilitating hearings through the use of video link, telephone directions and electronic filing.
Panels
The following Panels will be progressively established in each Registry.
Administrative Law Panel
This includes all appeals transferred from the Federal Court to the Federal Magistrates Court from
non-presidential members of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and all Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 applications.
Admiralty Panel
This includes all applications under the Admiralty Act 1988.
Commercial Panel
This includes bankruptcy (and corporations law if jurisdiction is conferred), copyright (and patent and
trademarks if jurisdiction is conferred) and trade practices. Sub-panels may be appropriate generally or in some registries only to allow for difference in the volume of applications in each area, e.g. Bankruptcy may be
a 'stand alone' sub-panel.
Employment Panel
This includes all applications under the Workplace Relations Act 1996 and associated Acts
including provisions to hear unlawful termination claims, enforcement powers by way of civil penalties and injunctive relief, unfair contracts and breaches of agreement making.
Human Rights Panel
This includes all applications under the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986 to
hear and determine complaints of discrimination under the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Age Discrimination Act 2004.
National Security Panel
This includes applications made to the Federal Magistrates Court as an issuing court under the
anti-terrorism legislative package.
Further Panels will be established as the Court is granted additional jurisdiction. The Court may also
modify the panel composition over time.
Convenors of Panels and allocation of applications to Panel Members
The Chief Federal Magistrate will appoint a Convenor for each Panel, the Convenor being responsible for the
allocation of applications to Panel members.
Cases are allocated randomly to Federal Magistrates by the Registry (following instructions from Convenors)
and a docket management system is adopted. Once an application which falls within a panel jurisdiction is docketed to a Federal Magistrate on the Panel, it will generally remain with that Federal Magistrate.
Urgent Applications
Urgent applications will be dealt with in accordance with Part 5 of the Federal Magistrates Court Rules 2001.
The Registry will be the first contact point for any urgent applications received in normal business hours. District Registries can provide information on the means of making urgent applications in particular jurisdictions,
both during and outside of ordinary business hours. Urgent applications in Panel cases made out of business hours will be considered by the Duty Federal Magistrate, who may, depending on the circumstances, make arrangements
for urgent applications to be referred to a Panel member.
Panel liaison with practitioners
Panel Convenors will establish appropriate specialist liaison groups with relevant practitioners.
Composition of Panels
The Panel Convenors and Members as at 1 September 2006. Click to view
panel members.