Federal Court of Australia

Enforcement of Federal Court Orders or Judgments (No. Q1/03 22 January 2003)
NB: This Notice to Practitioners is superseded by Enforcement of Federal Court Orders or Judgments dated 23 February 2005

A judgment creditor in the Federal Court, by reason of section 53 of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 and Order 37 rule 7 of the Federal Court Rules, has the same remedies for enforcement of a Federal Court judgment or order as exist in the State Supreme Court. The modes of procedure and forms of the Supreme Court of the state in which the judgment or order is sought to be enforced shall be available and followed in the Court, so far as is practicable mutatis mutandis for the enforcement of orders of the Court.

Enforcement proceedings in the Supreme Court of Queensland are contained in the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 Qld (UCPR), in particular:

• Chapter 19 Enforcement of money orders; and
• Chapter 20 Enforcement of non-money orders.

Documents to be filed

To file an application in the Federal Court for enforcement of a Federal Court judgment or order, the following documents should be filed:

• Application. The application shall be in Form 9 UCPR, modified for the Federal Court.
• Any other documents as required by the relevant provision of the UCPR eg affidavits or statements in support.
• Warrant in triplicate in a form prescribed by the UCPR.

Claim for interest and costs

Refer to Order 35 rule 8 of the Federal Court Rules for interest in respect of Federal Court judgments. Costs payable to the Sheriff for execution of process are contained in items 6 and 7 of the Schedule to the Federal Court Regulations. Solicitor's costs for work performed for the enforcement application are calculated on an individual item basis having regard to the fees contained in the Second Schedule of the Federal Court Rules.

Filing fee

There is no filing fee for an application for an enforcement order.

Security for Sheriff's costs

Depending on the nature of the enforcement application, security for costs may be required from the applicant in anticipation of the Sheriff's enforcement costs.

Registrars have been given delegation to deal with enforcement applications consistent with the powers of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Queensland as contained in chapters 19 and 20 UCPR. Once the enforcement warrant issues it is referred to the Sheriff of the Court and the procedure contained in the UCPR will apply.

Any information that the enforcement creditors can provide to the Sheriff to assist the enforcement proceedings should be included in a letter accompanying the application eg the nature and location of assets.

Urgent matters

If the application is urgent, a letter outlining the reason for the urgency must be provided to the Court at the time the application is lodged.