EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Issued on the authority of the Attorney-General.
Subject - Family Law Act 1975
Family Law Regulations (Amendment)
1989 No. 326
Subsection 125(1) of the Family Law Act 1975 (the Act) empowers the Governor-General to make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters that are required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed or are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for the carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
Section 116C(1) of the Act provides that the regulations may, in relation to matters included in a class of matters arising under the Act, under the Regulations or under the Rules of Court, fix or limit, or provide for the fixing, or limiting of the amounts that may be paid by relevant authorities to legal practitioners acting in such matters. Part V of the Family Law Regulations was enacted pursuant to Section 116C(1).
The purpose of the Family Law Regulations (Amendment) is to repeal Part V of the Regulations which will bring to an end the separate scale of fees that is presently payable to solicitors undertaking work on behalf of legally aided clients in proceedings arising under the Act, the Rules of Court and the Regulations. The repeal will take effect from 1 December 1989 and will apply to grants of legal assistance assigned on or after that date.
As from 1 December 1989 the responsibility for setting fees for legally aided matters in family law proceedings, consistent with the practice adopted in respect of all other legally aided matters, will rest with each individual legal aid commission.