Smarter Drafter Precedent Update May 2025

It’s been a big month for legislative reform, with changes to both the Family Law Act and the Privacy Act coming into effect on 10 June 2025.

We’ve updated the Essentials precedent bank to reflect these changes, so your documents stay accurate, compliant and courtroom-ready.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what’s changed and what it means for your practice.

Family Law: Significant Reforms You Need to Know

We’ve updated all relevant Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia forms in line with the latest versions issued by the Court. These updates follow some meaningful changes to the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth), including:

• A broader definition of family violence – It now forms the basis for seeking an adjustment in property matters, expanding how the courts may consider family violence in financial settlements.
• Disclosure obligations are now legislated – The long-standing expectation for full and frank disclosure is now part of the law, making compliance even more critical.
• Pets are now officially property – Companion animals can now be the subject of court orders as to ownership. A small but important change for many families.
• Greater clarity around costs orders – The updated Act provides clearer guidance on how and when costs can be awarded.

Updated Documents

The following FCFCoA forms have been reviewed and updated:

• Affidavit – Family law and child support
• Affidavit – Non-filing of family dispute resolution certificate
• Financial questionnaire
• Financial statement
• Genuine steps certificate
• Initiating application (Family)
• Notice of appeal (child support)
• Notice of objection – Subpoena
• Notice of request to inspect
• Outline of case document (final hearing)
• PPP Cases financial summary – Express version
• Reply
• Request to attend by electronic communication
• Response to initiating application (Family)
• Subpoena – Family law
• Undertaking as to disclosure
• Financial statement – Express
• Application for review
• Confidential case outline document (dispute resolution)

Note: Applications for Divorce have been lodged online through the Court's portal for some time, but because a paper version was still available, we continued to offer a document for generation. As of the June 2025 update, the Court hasn’t released an updated paper version of the form, so we’ll be removing ours. If the Court later publishes a new paper copy, we will consider adding it back in.

We’ll continue to monitor how the reforms play out in practice and update additional precedents if needed.

Privacy Act: Major Reform for a New Era of Privacy

Alongside the family law changes, new privacy reforms have come into force, and they’re worth paying attention to. The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) now includes:

• A new statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy
• Doxxing is now a criminal offence
• Increased enforcement powers for the OAIC
• Tighter data security obligations
• Stronger references to the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme

Updated Document

We’ve updated the Privacy Policy precedent to reflect these changes. If your firm, or your clients, maintain a Privacy Policy, now’s the time to review it and ensure it aligns with the updated legislation.

Smarter Drafter is designed to keep you ahead of legislative change. As always, we’ll continue updating Essentials as the practical impact of these reforms becomes clearer.

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Download the full Document and Precedent list

Those are the highlights from the past month, but If you want to see the full list, click the button below.