Federal Court Amendment Rules 2008 (No 1)

04/08/2008

The Federal Court Amendment Rules 2008 (No 1) were registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments on 1 August 2008.

The�Rule makes the following amendments to the Federal Court Rules:

• amend Order 21 subrule 1 (2) to allow applications for an order under subrule 1 (1) by a person against whom the vexatious proceedings had been instituted or conducted and a person who has sufficient interest and remove the reference to the Solicitor-General;
• insert a new subrule Order 23 subrule 11 (6) to set out the cost consequences of the situation where an offer is made by the respondent and not accepted by the applicant and the judgment on the claim is in favour of the respondent or is more favourable than the terms of the offer;
• insert a new rule Order 41 rule 7A to provide for electronically affixing a facsimile of the signature of the Registrar to documents in proceedings;
• insert a new Order 71A to provide that proceedings under the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 are to be conducted in accordance with the Federal Court (Corporations) Rules 2000;
• amend Order 1 rule 5AC and forms 173 and 174 which will deal with the electronic filing of court documents.

The amendments mentioned in items 1 to 4 above commenced on the day after registration. The amendments mentioned in item 5 will commence on 1 September 2008.

4 August 2008