The Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (the Courts) engages in the following social media channels:
What you can expect from the Court
If you follow the Courts on these platforms, you can expect short updates with the latest news, information and services. This may include notifications of:
- online service outages
- registry closures
- emergency notifications
- legislation and rules changes
- selected job vacancies
- high profile cases and significant decisions
- latest news, and
- media releases.
We will never ask you for personal information through social media.
We monitor our social media accounts during business hours, Monday to Friday.
The Courts endeavour to ensure the information published on these social media accounts is current and accurate at the time of publication, however you should always verify that information is current, and relevant for the intended purposes, as the information could be subject to change over time.
The Courts cannot provide legal advice and information published on social media accounts is not intended to be legal advice.
Terms of service
These terms of service are in addition to any user policy or terms and conditions imposed by the Twitter/LinkedIn/YouTube host.
When posting, please respect the views of other users and be aware that our accounts are accessed by a broad audience group.
All content posted by users must comply with the relevant terms of use of that platform. Furthermore, please ensure your comments do not include any material that:
- contains personal information about yourself or another person
- is abusive, threatening, discriminatory, defamatory or libellous
- is unlawful, fraudulent, misleading or malicious
- uses obscene or offensive language
- identifies any person who is party to a proceeding or who is otherwise connected to proceedings
- infringes on the intellectual property rights of others
- makes unsubstantiated claims, including against individuals or organisations, or in relation to Government policy
- is offensive, obscene or otherwise inappropriate
- is irrelevant to the topic or material that is being discussed, and
- promotes commercial interests, or offers to sell any good or services, contains spam or any other unsolicited commercial message.
The Courts reserve the right to remove, untag and/or report any posts, including those that violate these terms of service. Users who breach these terms of service may be blocked from contributing, and the Courts accept no liability for any loss arising out of or in connection with users being blocked from the relevant service or the deletion of a user’s content.
The Courts may change these terms at any time.
Any questions regarding the terms can be directed to communication@fcfcoa.gov.au.
Awareness of what you post
The Courts welcome contributions to our social media accounts, and we encourage discussion about our initiatives, events and updates.
To ensure a safe environment for all members of our community, we ask users to abide by the following terms of service and we reserve the right to remove any content deemed to be inappropriate.
Please note that social media should not be used to seek information from the Courts. For timely and accurate responses, contact the Courts via phone, email or Live Chat.
Commonwealth legislation is in place that restricts publishing information that may identify or lead to the identification of people involved in family law proceedings, including litigants, children and witnesses.
Part XIVB of the Family Law Act 1975 makes it an offence, except in very limited circumstances, to communicate to the public:
- an account of proceedings that identifies parties or others involved in the proceedings, or
- a list of court proceedings that refers to names of parties.
Information that can be deemed as likely to identify an individual connected to family law proceedings includes but is not limited to:
- a picture, recording, or physical description of the person
- a name or title that identifies the person
- an address or location where the person resides or works
- details of the person’s employment, paid or voluntary;
- the relationship or other connection between the person and an identified person or business
- the person’s political, philosophical or religious beliefs
- any real or personal property associated with the person.
Further information can be found in Part XIVB of the Family Law Act 1975.
Users should be aware of, and comply with, any other legal prohibitions on the publication of information, including suppression orders, in both family law and general federal law proceedings.
Privacy policy
The Courts’ Privacy Policy applies to the Courts’ official use of social networking platforms. The Courts are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and/or any linked websites.
Social media disclaimer
Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn are external sites, and, when using them, you are bound by their respective terms and conditions of use. We encourage you to review the legal policies of those sites for further information. The Courts do not endorse, and are not accountable for, any views expressed by third parties using those sites.
The use of social media by public servants is governed by the APS Values and Code of Conduct and Social media: Guidance for Australian Public Service Employees and Agencies. Public servants are expected to maintain the same high standards of conduct and behaviour online as would be expected through other channels.
Limits on liability
Whilst the Courts closely monitors these sites, it neither controls nor directs the information published by third parties and is not responsible for any content that is shared, or their actions and conduct. This includes any offensive, inappropriate, obscene or unlawful content.
The Courts disclaim all warranties, whether express or implied, and to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, will not be liable for any losses or damages arising out of the use of these sites.
