Court document · Family Law

Initiating Application (Family Law): completion guide for parenting and financial orders

Link to the Court's current Initiating Application with a part-by-part completion guide, the documents that must be filed with it, and the safety and AI rules (PD-AI) that apply.

Kind: Court document. A document filed or served in a court or tribunal.
Where it applies: Australia, Commonwealth
AI use: Yellow AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
Law stated as at: 17 October 2026
Status: Maintained. Checked against the cited sources on 17 October 2026.
Version: 1
Source: Link to the official form. Licence: © Commonwealth of Australia (Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia). Court forms are excluded from the Court's CC BY-ND 3.0 licence: link only, do not copy or adapt the form.

Where this comes from

The official form is published by fcfcoa.gov.au; this page is a completion guide. Last checked on 2026-10-17.

When to use it

Use when starting parenting and/or financial proceedings in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. Do not use for matters that belong in the Family Court of Western Australia, or where the parties have agreed terms (use the Application for Consent Orders).

How AI may be used

AI may help organise the lawyer's notes and check a draft for consistency, but the form must be the Court's current version, the orders sought are settled by the lawyer, and the Statement of Truth belongs to the client. PD-AI applies to everyone who prepares the documents.

AI may

Turn the lawyer's instructions note into a checklist of the documents that must be filed with the application
Compare the draft orders with the settled instructions and list gaps, inconsistent dates or names
Check that the separation date, children's details and existing orders are consistent across the application, affidavit and Financial Statement (in a firm-approved closed tool)

AI must not

Must not enter a protected residential address, refuge location, a child's school or a safety plan into any AI tool
Must not draft the supporting affidavit or rephrase the client's account (PD-AI para 4.9)
Must not enter subpoenaed, disclosed or suppressed material into a GenAI tool that does not meet PD-AI para 5.5
Must not file anything taken from an AI output without line-by-line checking against source documents

The lawyer checks

The form is the current version downloaded from the Court page on the day of filing
Jurisdiction, time limits and the s 60I certificate or exemption basis
Each order sought is precise, enforceable and supported by the evidence filed
Safe contact details and address for service, and that nothing in the bundle discloses a protected address

Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.

Authorities

Official form

Open the official form. Always use the current version from the issuer. Licence: © Commonwealth of Australia (Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia). Court forms are excluded from the Court's CC BY-ND 3.0 licence: link only, do not copy or adapt the form..

Read the full text

The full text is for signed-in accounts. It is free. When you sign in you can:

read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.

The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.

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