FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
Practice Note GEN 2
DOCUMENTS

This Practice Note is REVOKED

On 25 October 2016, as part of the National Court Framework reforms, all existing practice documents were revoked and new national practice notes were issued, effective immediately. 

To assist Court users to understand these practice note changes, the Court has prepared: 
•	a cross-reference table comparing new to old practice notes; and 
•	a cross-reference table comparing old to new practice notes.
Please note: Notwithstanding the formal revocation of this practice note, litigants may continue to refer to this particular revoked practice note's contents while the Court is developing a number of technology resources to support the new Technology and the Court Practice Note (GPN-TECH).

Practice Note GEN 2 issued on 1 August 2011 is revoked and the following Practice Note is substituted.

1.	This Practice Note applies to a document that is not in an approved form prepared by a party for use in the Court, except to the extent that the nature of the document renders compliance impracticable or unless otherwise permitted by the Court or a Registrar.  It should be read in conjunction with Practice Note CM 23 which deals with the electronic court file and the preparation and lodgment of documents.

2.	A document shall be on paper of durable quality and measuring about 295 millimetres long and 210 millimetres wide.

3.	A margin of at least 25 millimetres must be kept clear on the left side of each page of a document containing writing.  There shall be a space of not less than 3 millimetres between the lines of writing.  There shall be a space of not less than 20 mm between the last line of writing and the end of each page of a document

4.	The writing shall be clear, sharp, legible and permanent.  A document shall not be filed if it bears any blotting, erasure, or alterations as to cause material disfigurement.

5.	The writing on the document may be on 1 or both sides of the paper, but not partly on 1 side and partly on both sides.  In the eLodgment of any scanned image of double sided documents, care must be taken to ensure that both sides of each page have been scanned and included in the image that is uploaded.

6.	The pages of a document presented in or sent to a District Registry in hard copy must be securely fastened.

7.	Dates, sums and other numbers shall be expressed in figures and not in words.

J L B ALLSOP
Chief Justice
3 September 2014