EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Statutory Rules 1982 No 217
Issued by the Authority of the Judges of the Federal Court of Australia
AMENDMENTS OF THE RULES OF THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
Section 59 of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 permits the Judges of the Court (of whom there are twenty-four (24) including the Chief Judge) or a majority of them, to make Rules of Court not inconsistent with the Act, making provision for or in relation to the practice and procedure to be followed in the Court (including the practice and procedure to be followed in Registries of the Court) and for or in relation to all matters and things incidental to any such practice or procedure, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for the conduct of any business of the Court. The section also provides that sections 48, 49 and 50 of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 apply in relation to these Rules of Court made under that section as if references in those sections of that Act to regulations were references to Rules of Court.
The present Federal Court Rules came into operation on 1 August 1979 (Statutory Rules 1979 No. 140). They were amended for the first time by Statutory Rules 1980 No. 87 which operated from 1 May 1980.
The Rules now made come into operation on 1 October 1982. These Rules provide, inter alia, for - a change in the mode of entering an appearance to litigation; costs of complying with a subpeona to produce documents in Court; the release of persons in lawful custody for the purposes of attending at proceedings in Court; the increase in the rate of interest on judgments from 10% to 15%; applications to file and serve Notices of Appeal out of time; use of written cases; the mode of bringing proceedings to the Court under the Complaints (Australian Federal Police) Act 1981 from the Federal Police Disciplinary Tribunal.
There are other minor amendments made either to correct anomalies or to clarify matters of practice.