Practice and procedure update: Family law Practice Directions | Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia

The Family Law Amendment Act 2024 (Cth) commences on 10 June 2025.

The Family Law Regulations 2024 commenced on 1 April 2025.

As a result of these changes, and consequential changes to the Family Law Rules which will be published this week, there will be minor amendments to several family law Practice Directions. The new Practice Directions will be published on 10 June 2025.

Family Law Practice Directions – Key changes

The table below includes a summary of the key changes that will be reflected in each Practice Direction.

Practice Direction	Summary of key changes
Central Practice Direction – Family Law Case Management	changes reflecting amendments to section 60I exemptions and the new legislative requirement for the Court to reject for filing an application seeking parenting orders if a section 60I certificate is not filed, and an exemption is not granted changes reflecting additional source of disclosure obligations for financial or property proceedings, noting the duty of disclosure has been inserted into the Family Law Act addition of references to safety planning at various court events on the recommendation of the Courts’ Joint Family Violence Committee
Parenting proceedings	changes reflecting amendments to section 60I exemptions and the new legislative requirement for the Court to reject for filing an application seeking parenting orders if a section 60I certificate is not filed, and an exemption is not granted updating disclosure obligations to exclude material that would be a protected confidence in line with the new sections of the Family Law Act clarifying that ex parte urgent applications should be filed by email to the relevant registry, and not eFiled through the Commonwealth Courts Portal
Child Support and Child Maintenance Proceedings	changes reflecting amendment to appeal pathway for appeals under the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act, which are now family law proceedings (rather than general federal law proceedings under the repealed Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act) changes reflecting amendments to section 60I exemptions and the new legislative requirement for the Court to reject for filing an application seeking parenting orders if a section 60I certificate is not filed, and an exemption is not granted
Financial Proceedings	change in terminology to use term ‘financial or property proceedings’ to align with the terminology in the Family Law Act new items 2.6 and 3.5 which require less documents to be filed if the only financial or property orders sought are in relation to a family pet clarifying that ex parte urgent applications should be filed by email to the relevant registry, and not eFiled through the Commonwealth Courts Portal addition of new item 3.4 stating that third parties (i.e. parties who are not parties to the marriage or de facto relationship) are now required to file less documents – they do not need to file a Financial Statement, Financial Questionnaire or Affidavit, unless they are seeking/opposing interlocutory orders, in which case they only need to file an Affidavit as required by Chapter 5 of the Family Law Rules
Medical procedure proceedings	clarifying that ex parte urgent applications should be filed by email to the relevant registry, and not eFiled through the Commonwealth Courts Portal changes reflecting amendments to section 60I exemptions and the new legislative requirement for the Court to reject for filing an application seeking parenting orders if a section 60I certificate is not filed, and an exemption is not granted
National Contravention List	minor changes only, one wording change from ‘exception’ to ‘exemption’ regarding section 60I, to reflect the language of the Family Law Act
Passport proceedings	clarifying that ex parte urgent applications should be filed by email to the relevant registry, and not eFiled through the Commonwealth Courts Portal changes reflecting amendments to section 60I exemptions and the new legislative requirement for the Court to reject for filing an application seeking parenting orders if a section 60I certificate is not filed, and an exemption is not granted
PPP Cases	minor changes only to terminology to use term ‘financial or property proceedings’ to align with the terminology in the Family Law Act
Surrogacy proceedings	updates to reflect renumbered sections of the Family Law Regulations 2024 change in terminology to use term ‘financial or property proceedings’ to align with the terminology in the Family Law Act clarifying that parties do not need to comply with the pre-action procedures in the Family Law Rules where all parties agree with the orders or the respondent does not seek different orders, nor file a section 60I certificate removing the requirement to file a Genuine Steps Certificate clarifying that the affidavit filed with an Initiating Application (Family Law) must address the matters in rule 1.10 of the Family Law Rules
Trans-Tasman Proceedings	minor changes only, corrections to legislation hyperlinks
Appeals	minor changes only, changes to rule numbering to reflect the removal of the distinction in procedural requirements between appeals heard by a Full Court and appeals heard by a Single Judge
Arbitration	updates to reflect renumbered sections of the Family Law Regulations 2024 changes to reflect removal of distinction between court-ordered arbitration/ section 13E arbitration and private arbitration
Bankruptcy Act	minor changes only, only cross-reference change to Practice Direction – Financial or property proceedings.
Critical Incident List	minor typographical changes only
Divorce proceedings	changes to clarify when the Applicant and/or Respondent need to attend a hearing, following the amendment to section 98A of the Family Law Act, which no longer requires a sole Applicant to attend a divorce hearing only because there are children under 18 years of age changes to remove references to counselling certificates for applications made less than 2 years from the date of marriage, following the repeal of subsections 44(1B) and (1C) of the Family Law Act changes clarifying evidence required for proof of jurisdiction
Major Complex Financial Proceedings List	minor changes only to terminology to use term ‘financial or property proceedings’ to align with the terminology in the Family Law Act