Faber v Child Support Registrar

In *Faber v Child Support Registrar*, the applicant, Faber, sought to appeal an Administrative Appeals Tribunal decision concerning an application for a departure from an administrative assessment of child support payments. Faber had issued a subpoena to the Child Support Registrar for a specific document, and the Registrar applied to set aside that subpoena. The matter came before Judge Antoni Lucev in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia.

The primary legal issues before the court were whether the subpoena had been issued for an improper or illegitimate forensic purpose, whether the subpoenaed document was relevant to the issues to be determined, and whether the subpoena constituted an abuse of process, was oppressive, or vexatious. The court also considered the effect of a prior refusal to release the document under a freedom of information request.

Judge Lucev reasoned that a subpoena should not be used as a "fishing expedition" to discover if a case exists. The court applied the principles that a subpoena will be set aside if it is sought for an improper purpose, is irrelevant, or is an abuse of process. In this instance, the court found that the subpoenaed document, titled "Calculating financial capacity for business owners," was not relevant to the specific issues before the court in the context of the appeal. The court determined that the applicant had not demonstrated a sufficient forensic purpose for requiring the document, particularly in light of the information already available and the nature of the appeal.

Consequently, the court ordered that the subpoena issued on 20 December 2017 for Document 277-040600 be set aside. The court also made directions regarding the filing and service of submissions concerning any award of costs.