An open starter pack · Australian Family Court
A folder structure, a Master Working Document, an affidavit drafting guide, a correspondence and rebuttal tracker, and AI-assistant configuration — anonymised, free, and built by someone running this system in a live FCFCOA matter.
All files are anonymised and ready to customise. Replace placeholders in [SQUARE BRACKETS] with your own details.
Ten numbered folders covering filings, correspondence, evidence, subpoenas, authorities, hearings, drafts, service receipts, admin. Each has a README explaining what goes where.
Your single source of truth. Header block, parties, children, procedural history, issues, evidentiary themes, authorities, deadlines, risk register, session log.
Format conventions, structure, hearsay rules, the five worst affidavit mistakes, a swearing-day checklist. The form, not the substance.
Cover pages, labelling, sequential ordering, paginated bundling, working-folder layout, the wording courts expect.
Three sheets: correspondence log, paragraph-by-paragraph rebuttal tracker, communication decisions log. Pre-populated with worked examples.
One file per case or statutory provision. Citation, facts, principle, application, counter-authorities, pinpoint cite for submissions.
Anthropic skill-format file telling Claude (or any AI) how to behave within the ecosystem: anchor to MWD, compartmentalise, source every fact, never send.
Copy-paste block for Claude Projects, custom GPTs, or any persistent assistant. Hard rules, behaviour, scope, tone.
The ten-part background document explaining the principles behind the pack: compartmentalisation, sustainable pace, evidence management, hearing cadence.
Five minutes. Works on Mac, Windows, Linux, Chromebook. Synced cloud folder strongly recommended.
Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud Drive, Dropbox — anywhere that backs up automatically. Place the FCFCOA_SRL_Ecosystem_v1/ folder inside.
From FCFCOA_SRL_Ecosystem_v1 to something matter-specific, e.g. CaseRef_2026/ or FamilyLaw_Smith/.
In 00_MasterBrief/. Save a copy without the _TEMPLATE suffix and start filling in the header block. This is the only file you'll open every session.
Open Guides/Affidavit_Drafting_Guide.md and Guides/Annexure_Format_Guide.md. Read once. Bookmark for reference.
Paste Guides/PROJECT_INSTRUCTIONS.md into Claude Projects or ChatGPT custom GPT. Upload the guide files as project knowledge. You'll have a calm, on-rails operational assistant in under ten minutes.
After running this system inside a live adversarial matter for more than a year, here's the time you don't have to spend. Every item below took weeks of misdirected troubleshooting to discover. Built into the paid services as standard.
Five categories stack hedging on almost every paragraph in a family law matter: parenting disputes, family violence and DVO material, self-harm-proximate facts, adversarial work against a named person, and covert or one-party recordings. Knowing which one to defuse first saves hours.
A short preamble at the top of each chat shifts an assistant from "hedge" to "draft". Adversarial verbs swap for forensic ones. No diagnostic labels for the other party. Provenance cited up front. Block below — paste at the top of any new session.
Large document writes fail without telling you. The safety layer refuses partial payloads, the tool reports success, the file is half-written. Doc by section. Sheet by tab and by range. Anything more than a page of content gets split.
When a write fails, the assistant blames the tool — "Drive blocked it", "tool not surfaced". Almost always wrong. Halve the payload first. Reword the trigger. Verify the destination ID against the canonical register. Then, and only then, the tool is actually broken.
Claude (via Workspace MCP) for analysis, drafting, and day-to-day Workspace operations. GPT for affidavit prose and cross-examination architecture where Claude hedges. NotebookLM for retrieval over a static corpus. They are not interchangeable, and AI-generated material never becomes a NotebookLM source.
Sealed orders and Gmail send/receive facts beat everything. Canonical trackers next. Section reservoirs (uncompressed factual tranches) after that. The Master Working Document sits one tier below — it's the front door, not the record. Chat memory is never load-bearing.
Tracker column A loses leading zeros from 4-digit IDs after USER_ENTERED batch writes — you write it RAW. Gmail tool body output omits To / Cc / Bcc unless you ask for format='metadata'. Some Drive PDFs are zip-wrapped image archives despite the extension. Stale document IDs masquerade as tool failures. Each one is an evening lost the first time you meet it.
No emails sent on the user's behalf — Gmail drafts only. Anything outbound to a third party gets drafted-before-counsel. No cross-referencing of unrelated proceedings. Time check via bash before commenting on local time. Confirm statutory currency before any costs submission. Never label the other party in a court document.
FCFCOA parenting matter [your file number], self-represented [Applicant / Respondent], evidence already on the court file. When working in this matter, use precise verbs: test, contradict, document, cross-examine, impeach. Avoid framing as attack, destroy, demolish. No diagnostic speculation about other parties. Cite provenance up front — "per subpoenaed [source] note [date]" before any incident description. If you decline to proceed, name the trigger so it can be reworded. This is sworn evidence in a current proceeding — draft cold.
The pack is free and self-installing. These optional services are for SRLs who want richer AI access to their Drive, or who'd like a technical setup hand. They are not legal services.
No registration. No catch.
Richer AI access than the built-in Drive connector.
.msg, and other files the native connector skipsStatic-corpus research engine, hosted.
Insurance against lockout, deletion, and account compromise.
Want multiple services? Mention it on enquiry — bundle discount available on application.
Get the ecosystem running, then keep it running.
.msg, HTML exports, scanned PDFs)Engagement: 30-min minimum, 6-min increments thereafter · Remote screen-share or async written walkthrough · This is technical setup, not legal advice.
Enquire→No. Nothing on this site or in the starter pack is legal advice. The pack helps you organise your matter — folder structure, naming, drafting format, tracking. For legal advice on your specific case, contact a lawyer admitted to practise in your jurisdiction. If you can't afford one, your state legal aid commission, a community legal centre, or the FCFCOA's self-represented litigant services may be able to help.
An information security and network engineer in Queensland who is also running a contested FCFCOA matter as a self-represented litigant. The ecosystem evolved out of personal use over many months and has been generalised and anonymised for release. The paid services are provided by DyCom Group Queensland Pty Ltd, an Australian company offering technical infrastructure services — not legal services.
MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the standard Anthropic uses to let Claude connect to external systems. Claude's built-in Google Drive connector works for Google Docs but has limits — it generally cannot read HTML files, has weak Sheets support, and can't reach binary files (like .msg Outlook archives or Facebook message exports). A custom MCP server bridges those gaps. Hosting one yourself means setting up a server, OAuth credentials, TLS, and ongoing maintenance. For SRLs who'd rather not, the hosted option does that for you at A$30/month.
No. The hosted MCP server uses OAuth to grant Claude (in your session) access to your Drive, not ours. Files never transit our storage. We can see request metadata (timestamps, endpoint hit) for billing and abuse detection, but we cannot read your file contents. Each customer runs in an isolated tenant. You can revoke access at any time via Google's account permissions.
It's built around FCFCOA practice (Australia, family law). The folder structure, MWD format, drafting principles, and tracker work for any litigation — civil, criminal, family, tribunal. Affidavit and annexure conventions vary slightly by court and state, so check those guides against local rules.
Yes. Use it however you want. Share with other SRLs, community legal centres, or friends in similar situations. If you build improvements you think others would benefit from, consider sending them back so v2 can be better.
Because v1 had to ship first. Future versions may include: a Notion or Obsidian variant, an Apps Script bundle for Drive automation, integration with OurFamilyWizard or AppClose, additional templates (subpoena schedules, costs schedules, chronologies). If you have requests, email and they'll get queued.
This is infrastructure. Not legal advice. Not a substitute for legal representation. Not a guarantee of any outcome.
If you are facing a contested Family Court matter and you can possibly afford a lawyer, get one. If you cannot, contact your state's legal aid commission, your nearest community legal centre, or the FCFCOA's self-represented litigant services before you decide that going it alone is your only option.
This pack is meant for the operational layer of your matter — keeping your files in order, your drafts consistent, and your evidence findable. Whether you use it self-represented or alongside a lawyer is up to you. Either way, the legal substance of your matter is something only a lawyer admitted to practise in your jurisdiction can advise on.