Response to Initiating Application (Family Law) Kit

Under rule 2.18 of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021, a respondent who wants to consent to, oppose or ask for different orders, ask for the application to be dismissed, or seek orders on a new subject matter must file a response in the approved form within 28 days after service of the application. For an Initiating Application (Family Law) that is this Response, which carries a Statement of Truth. It cannot seek a divorce, annulment, a declaration about a marriage or a medical procedure order (r 2.18(3)). The kit explains the pre-action procedures and the other documents that must be filed with it, including a Genuine Steps Certificate (Central Practice Direction para 4.2).

When you need it

• You have been served with an Initiating Application (Family Law) for parenting, property, maintenance or other orders and you oppose them or want other orders.
• You want to raise a new subject, such as property orders where only parenting orders were sought, or the reverse.
• You want to respond to interim orders sought in the application, or seek interim orders yourself (you will also need an affidavit, and an Application in a Proceeding if the applicant did not seek interim orders).

1. 1

   Parts A and B: parties and orders

   Write the full names of the applicant and respondent. Mark any new type of orders you seek (parenting, financial or property, maintenance, other) and, if you introduce parenting orders, whether you are filing a section 60I certificate or seeking an exemption. Set out the final orders (and interim orders, if any) you seek, numbered.

2. 2

   Part C: details of the parties

   Give your and the applicant's names, contact details, dates of birth, occupation, interpreter needs and, optionally, gender and Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin. Complete the panel on page 1 showing who prepared the response and your address for service (it need not be your home address if that is unsafe).

3. 3

   Parts D and E: facts and other cases

   Identify any facts in the Initiating Application you do not agree with, and any new court case or order since it was filed involving family law, child support, family violence or child welfare.

4. 4

   Parts F to I: financial, maintenance and jurisdiction

   Complete Part F only if you seek financial orders the applicant did not (financial agreements, superannuation agreements, bankruptcy, proceeds of crime), Part G for new maintenance claims, Part H for de facto jurisdiction facts, and Part I if relying on a cross-vesting law.

5. 5

   Part J: Statement of Truth

   Each respondent ticks that they have read and understood the Statement of Truth, then signs and dates it. The response will not be accepted without it. Remove the instruction pages before filing.

• File and serve within 28 days after you were served with the Initiating Application (r 2.18(2)). A filing fee applies; check the current fee schedule.
• File with it: a Genuine Steps Certificate; in parenting cases, a Notice of child abuse, family violence or risk (r 2.04) and a Parenting Questionnaire unless you must file an affidavit (r 8.09); in property cases, a Financial Statement and a Financial Questionnaire unless you must file an affidavit (r 6.06(4)); and copies of any family violence orders (r 2.10).
• eFile on the Commonwealth Courts Portal. If you cannot eFile, email the documents to the registry's filing address. Family law applications in Western Australia go to the Family Court of Western Australia.
• Serve the filed documents on the other parties, including any independent children's lawyer, by ordinary service as soon as possible.

• Only file an affidavit with the response if you respond to or seek interim orders, or a rule or practice direction requires one (r 2.20).
• If you seek parenting orders the applicant did not, you need a section 60I certificate from a family dispute resolution practitioner or an exemption affidavit before filing, as the kit explains.
• If typing the response, use at least 12 point font, as the kit asks.