Court recording and transcription services

An audio recording of court proceedings is made for most court hearings. Transcript of those hearings can then be prepared as an official record of the proceedings.

The following court hearings are recorded:

• Court hearings before a Judge
• Family law hearings before a Senior Judicial Registrar or Judicial Registrar
• Migration and general federal law hearings before a Judicial Registrar

The following court events are not recorded:

• Dispute resolution, mediation and conciliation conference events are confidential and therefore are not recorded
• Divorce hearings before a Deputy Registrar

Obtaining transcript of a hearing

A party to a proceeding or their legal representative may purchase a full or partial copy of a transcript from an external provider. The person placing the order will be required to pay for the transcript. The rate of charge is fixed in the Court's contract with the respective Transcript Providers. The rates vary according to a number of factors, including a higher rate for transcripts required urgently. The transcript providers can give details of the estimated cost of the transcript upon request.

A person who is not a party to family law proceedings cannot purchase a copy of the transcript without the leave of the Court. 

In general federal law proceedings non-parties may, in some circumstances, obtain access to a copy of the whole or part of the transcript of a proceeding.

See: Access to Court documents and transcript on the Federal Court website.

When requesting a transcript, parties need to be aware that they will be provided with only the transcript of proceedings that does not include judgments, rulings or orders.

Under its current records retention policy, the Court retains recordings for 10 years. Accordingly, requests for transcript of proceedings beyond 10 years cannot be processed.

Provision of transcript to parties by the Court

The Court does not provide transcripts to litigants at the Court's expense.

In limited circumstances, if the Court has already obtained a transcript, with the permission of the Court parties and/or their legal representatives may be permitted to view (but not copy) the Court's transcript in the court registry. The Court does not order transcript for all hearings so access to the transcript on the Court file may not always be available.

Occasionally the transcript of proceedings will constitute the reasons for the Judge's decision. In such instances, if reasons are required for the purposes of an appeal, the Court may provide a copy of the transcript, or portions of the transcript, to the parties and the Appeal Court for the purpose of the appeal.

How to order transcript

From Monday 22 June 2026 new arrangements for ordering transcript are in place.

All orders for transcript of a court hearing must be made by completing the transcript order form.

Note: Orders for 'same day' or 'progressive same day' transcript must be placed by 2pm the day prior to the hearing.

Orders will be triaged and distributed to a panel of transcript service providers by the Courts’ Recording and Transcript Team.

Upon receiving the order, the Recording and Transcript team will:

• process proof of identity 
• check there is no restriction on the transcript being released 
• submit the order to a panel transcript service provider.

The transcript will be released to the ordering party on payment of the fee to the transcript service provider. 

Any queries regarding transcript services should be directed to: transcripts@fcfcoa.gov.au

Transcript providers

The following service providers have been engaged to deliver transcript services for the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 1 and Division 2):

• APT Transcriptions Pty Ltd                
• Epiq Australia Pty Ltd                           
• Law In Order Pty Ltd                             
• Legal Transcripts Pty Ltd and
• Scribefire Pty Ltd

During the transition period, from VIQ to the new service providers, the Recording and Transcript Team will coordinate allocation of all transcript orders for the FCFCOA.  Once services and systems are well established with the new providers, information about how to place orders directly with each of the service providers will be published.                                  

Fees

Charges for transcripts are set by external transcript service providers that the Courts engage to deliver these services. The external transcript service providers will advise parties (and other court users) of the fees as part of the ordering process.

VIQ services ceased

The Courts’ contract with VIQ ceased on 30 June 2026. Any queries regarding VIQ’s administration including its staffing arrangements, should be directed to the administrators of VIQ.

Access to court recordings

Please note that private recordings of court events or the copying of court recordings is strictly prohibited. 

Access to authorised audio recordings is only available in exceptional circumstances and when approved by the relevant Registry Manager.

When making a request to the relevant Registry Manager to access recordings parties must clearly set out the reasons why a recording is sought to be accessed. Access to recordings will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Should approval be provided by the Registry Manager to access recordings, the necessary facilities and supervision will be arranged, and a fee will be payable.  

In some instances, parties may wish to listen to recordings of their proceeding before a Judge (or before a Registrar where it has been recorded) and select specific segments (excluding judgment, rulings and/orders) for written transcription.

As with the provision of transcripts, access will only be provided to recordings of proceedings, not judgments, rulings or orders.

Copyright

Copyright in Transcript is owned by the Commonwealth of Australia. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, you are not permitted to reproduce, adapt, re-transmit or distribute the Transcript material in any form or by any means without seeking prior written approval from the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.