Stopping your case - unpaid wages or entitlements

Using AI

You can use AI in your case to research the law and prepare your court documents if you follow the court’s rules. You may face serious penalties if you do not follow these rules.

For more information, see Using AI in your employment court case.

 You may want to stop your case because:

your employer paid you what you were claiming
you and your employer agreed to settle your case
you decided not to continue your claim any more.

To stop the case, you need to file a Notice of Discontinuance, which tells the court you are discontinuing (stopping) your case.

If you are stopping the case because you agreed to settle with your employer, you may also decide to put the details of the settlement in writing .This may be called a 'settlement agreement', 'terms of settlement' or a 'deed of release'. You may even file a document with the court called 'consent orders', that provide the court with some of the details about the settlement agreement.

You should get legal advice

about the terms or details of any settlement agreement or consent orders.
before you decide to discontinue your case.

 You will need one form:

Notice of Discontinuance form.

You can get a copy of the form from the:

your nearest court registry, or
Forms page on the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia website.

To fill out the form you will need to have the following information:

the name of the document you used to make the application (for example, Form 5 ' Small claim under the Fair Work Act 2009 ')
the date the document was filed with the court
which orders you no longer want.

For instructions on how to complete this form, and an example of a completed form, see:

When you have finished filling out the form you need to sign it. Your signature does not need to be witnessed.

You can use our instructions and sample form to complete an online application.

After you have finished filling out the form, take the original and two copies to the Federal Circuit and Family Court registry and file them. The court will keep the original form and the sealed (stamped) copies will be returned to you.

If the court has already listed your case for hearing, the Notice of Discontinuance must be filed at least 14 days before this date, but the court can give permission for it to be filed closer to the hearing date.

If you and your employer came to an agreement about settling your case, you may want to enter into a settlement agreement. You may also want to get the court to make some further orders about your case.

To see what a completed Deed of Release and Consent Orders could look like, see:

You can use our sample form to complete an online application.

Unless you have come to an agreement with your employer, they may apply for costs if you discontinue the application.

You must serve the form on your employer as soon as possible after you have filed it. You should serve it at their address for service, which should be on their response. If your employer did not file a response, serve it at the same address you served the application and claim.