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The Federal Magistrates Court was initially called the Federal Magistrates Service. As the court's jurisdiction has increased the name of the court has become less appropriatate as a discription of the court's work. The Federal Magistrates Court now exercises a jurisdiction far greater than that of the state magistrates courts and similar to that of the state district and county courts in Australia. There are now over 35 Federal Magistrates in Australia. The first Chief Federal Magistrate, Diana Bryant left the court in 2004 when she was appointed the Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia. The current Chief Federal Magistrate is John Pascoe . The current members of the court come from a wide variety of backgrounds, including barristers, solicitors, academic lawyers, and legal aid and public service lawyers. A list of the current members of the court can be found on the court's website The court sits permanently in each state capital (except Hobart and Perth), as well as the major regional centres of Launceston, Townsville and Newcastle. The court also sits in a large number of regional cities on circuits to hear family law cases. The court also hears some applications and evidence by telephone or video evidence when parties or witnesses live a long way from the court. In keeping with the requirment in sec 3 of the Federal Magistrates Court Act that the court act 'as informally as possible in the exercise of judicial power' Barrister s are not required to robe when appearing before the court. The court also has simpler rules than the Family Court or the Federal Court . JURISDICTION The court now exercises jurisdiction in a wide variety of areas. In family law the court may grant divorces, determine most issues relating to children, and determine property disputes (the limit that the pool of assets is less than AUD$700,000 or the parties consent to jurisdiction has been removed by recent amendments to the Family Law Act which commence on 1 July 2006). The court also hears most maintenance and child support related cases, as well as most applications for enforcement of family law orders. In the administrative law area it now hears most first instance applications for judicial eview of the Refugee Review Tribunal and Migration Review Tribunal. The court also exercises powers under the ''Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act'' and hears appeals from the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on remittal form the Federal Court. The court hears most bankruptcy applications and related proceedings. There is ongoing debate about granting the court jurisdiction to also deal with company liquidations. Broad commercial jurisdiction is vested in the court as a result of its jurisdiciton to hear cases involving 'misleading or deceptive' conduct under sec 52 of the ''Trade Practices Act'' coupled with the court's associated and accrued jurisdiction. This jurisdiciton is limited to AUD$200,000 at present (although legislation is in the parliament to increase this to $750,000). The court also has jurisdiction in admiralty, copyright, human rights, workplace relations and privacy. The court now exercises a jurisdiction equal to or greater than most state District Court s. EXTERNAL LINKS
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