- This Notice applies to the listing of
notices of motion filed under Order 19 of the Federal Court Rules
(and other commencing interlocutory process) in Judges’ dockets
in the NSW District Registry. This Notice takes effect from 4 February
2008 and replaces the previous Notice to Practitioners on Listing
Arrangements for Notices of Motion issued by the NSW District Registrar
on 22 January 1998.
- A notice of motion presented to the
Registry will be listed for directions or hearing in accordance with
the following procedures:
Prior arrangement with docket Judge
(a) Where the legal representative of a party has arranged with the
docket Judge ’s Associate for a directions date or a hearing
date, and provides to the Registry a letter from the legal
representative or an email from the docket Judge’s Associate
confirming that arrangement, the notice of motion will be listed on
that date.
Short service
(b) Where a party seeks short service (i.e. a return date less than
five clear days after service) of a commencing application, this will
be heard by the Duty Judge.
(c) Where short service of a notice of motion in a pending proceeding
is sought (i.e. a return date less than three clear days after
service), the legal representative should ordinarily contact the docket
Judge ’s Associate to make arrangements for the hearing of the
short service application. In appropriate circumstances, if the
docket Judge is unavailable, the docket Judge’s Associate will
arrange for such an application to be heard by the Duty Judge. If
the docket Judge’s Associate cannot be contacted within such time
as is reasonable in the circumstances, the legal representative of the
party seeking the order for short service may request that the
application be heard by the Duty Judge.
Where a listing arrangement has been obtained, the legal representative
should provide to the Registry on filing the notice of motion a letter
from the legal representative or an email from the docket Judge’s
Associate confirming the arrangement made with the docket Judge’s
Associate or the circumstances otherwise.
Expedition of Full Court matters
(d) Where a party seeks expedition of an application or appeal to the
Full Federal Court, this will be heard by the Judge responsible for
Full Court Callovers or the Duty Judge;
No prior arrangement with docket Judge
(e) Unless the docket judge in
question has a standing arrangement for the listing of notices of
motion, it is preferable for the filing party to make contact with the
chambers of the docket judge first to obtain a date for directions or
hearing of the motion. However in circumstances where:
- the docket judge does not have a
standing arrangement for the listing of notices of motion or where no
prior arrangement has been made with the docket Judge’s
Associate, and
- the notice of motion does not require
short service or relate to expedition of a full court matter, and
- when the notice of motion is presented
to the Registry, the Registry is unable to immediately obtain from the
docket Judge’s Associate a listing date and time,
the Registry will list the notice of
motion for directions or hearing depending upon the docket
Judge’s standing arrangement (allowing for three clear days for
service) or in accordance with the following procedures:
- the Registry will list the notice of
motion before the docket Judge at the next scheduled directions hearing
in the case; however, if there is no scheduled directions hearing for
that matter or the next scheduled directions hearing is more than 4
weeks away, the Registry will list the notice of motion in the docket
Judge’s next First Directions List (allowing for three clear days
for service);
- Once filed, the notice of motion and
supporting affidavit(s) will immediately be referred to the Chambers of
the docket Judge to consider what listing is appropriate.
In some cases, the Associate to the docket Judge will contact the
parties to arrange a different directions date or a special
fixture. A party may, at any time, contact the
Associate to the docket Judge for this purpose should the directions
date fixed in the Registry be inappropriate;
Docket Judge not allocated or
available
(f) Subject to the above procedures
concerning short service, in any case where there is no docket Judge at
the time a notice of motion is sought to be filed or the docket Judge
will not be available at the time the motion will need to be heard, the
notice of motion will ordinarily be listed before the Duty Judge on the
moving party’s application. As to the allocation of a listing
date for the Notice of Motion before that Judge, the principles in para
2(e) above will apply.
- It is expected that, unless there are
special circumstances, the subject matter of the motion will be
discussed with all other interested parties with a view to alleviating
the need for the Court to intervene. Failure to do so may have
consequence on costs.
Michael Wall
District Registrar
29th January 2008
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