The purpose of this notice is
to advise of new administrative arrangements relating
to the handling of Duty Judge matters within the New South
Wales District Registry of the Court.
Role of Duty Judge
1. The Duty Judge’s role
is to deal with those applications that are so urgent
that they cannot be satisfactorily accommodated within
the ordinary system of filing in the Registry and random
allocation to a Docket Judge. Some examples of such applications
are applications for:
abridgment
of time for service of originating process;
interlocutory
injunctions to operate pending the final hearing and
determination of a proceeding;
asset preservation
orders
Anton
Piller orders;
relief
in connection with the arrest of a ship of the release
of a ship from arrest.
2. The role of a Duty Judge whose period
of duty is during vacation (“Vacation Duty Judge”)
is to deal with all applications made during vacation
that would fall to be dealt with by the Duty Judge if
made during term time. An initial question for the Vacation
Duty Judge will be whether the application should be entertained
at all during vacation.
Identity of Duty Judge
3. The duty period of the Duty Judge is one week at a
time from Monday to Sunday. The identity of the Duty Judge
is determined by roster.
Approaching the Duty Judge:
General
4. The name of the Duty Judge and the telephone number
of his or her associate are published daily in the press
and on the notice board in the foyer of the Law Courts
Building, including during Court Vacation. Members of
the profession may approach the Duty Judge through his
or her associate, except outside business hours (including
on weekends and public holidays). Applications may be
made to the Duty Judge while he or she is in court. If
an inquirer who is a member of the profession, telephones
chambers while the Duty Judge is in court, the Duty Judge’s
personal assistant will refer the inquirer to the court-room
where the inquirer can, through the court officer, establish
contact with the Duty Judge’s associate. If the inquirer
is a litigant in person, the associate will refer him
or her to the Registry – see (8) below.
5. The published announcement directs any inquirer to
the Duty Registrar if, for any reason, chambers are temporarily
unattended. If the Duty Judge is in court, the Duty Registrar
will direct the inquirer to proceed directly to court.
Otherwise the Duty Registrar will make arrangements to
communicate with the Duty Judge
6. Outside business hours (including on weekends and public
holidays), inquirers in relation to urgent matters should
contact the Law Courts Building’s Security Desk (tel:
(02) 9230 8025). The telephone number for the Security
Desk is also published daily during those times. The Security
Desk will refer any inquirer to the Duty Registrar who
will then make arrangements to communicate with the Duty
Judge.
7. Where an urgent application is to be made in a proceeding
already in a particular judge’s docket, the Docket
Judge should be approached in the first instance. The
Docket Judge will be approached first even if the matter
arises through the Duty Registrar outside business hours.
Only if the Docket Judge is not available to deal with
the matter should an approach be made to the Duty Judge.
Approaching the Duty Judge: Litigants in Person
8. A litigant in person who telephones the Duty Judge’s
associate or wishes to approach the Duty Judge in court
may need preliminary assistance, for instance in relation
to the nature of the application and the appropriateness
of the documentation. For this reason the associate will
direct the litigant in person to the Registry in the first
instance. Court officers are trained to take litigants
in person who seek to approach the Duty Judge in court,
to the Registry for the same purpose.
Handling of Urgent Applications
9. A proceeding is not automatically allocated to the
docket of the Duty Judge who deals with an urgent application
in the proceeding, but is allocated randomly to a Docket
Judge in the usual way.
10. If an urgent application cannot be resolved within
the Duty Judge’s week, it may be appropriate to stand
it over to the following week’s Duty Judge or to
the Docket Judge.
11. Sometimes it is desirable, instead of giving interlocutory
relief, to give an early final hearing. This can be achieved
in either of two ways. First, the Duty Judge may find
it possible and appropriate to give an early final hearing.
Alternatively, the Duty Judge may ascertain from the Registry
who is to be the Docket Judge for the proceeding and find
out the earliest dates that Judge has available, and,
with the consent of that Judge, fix the proceeding for
final hearing before him or her.
12. Where an urgent application is made in a Panel area
and the Duty Judge is not a member of the Panel, it is
possible that the urgent application will raise difficult
issues of a specialist nature which the Duty Judge may
think would be better determined by a member of the Panel.
In such a case, the Duty Judge may make arrangements to
that end.
13. Where the application or notice of motion by which
an urgent application is made has not previously been
filed:
(a) the document should be filed in court; and
(b) an undertaking will be required of the moving party’s
legal representative (by name) to pay the filing fee (if
any).
Afterwards
14. Upon disposing of the urgent application, the Duty
Judge will, unless any special arrangement has been made,
stand the proceeding over to the Docket Judge.
15. If an application is made to the Duty Judge in a new
proceeding and the hearing before a Duty Judge ends during
business hours, the applicant will be required to file
documents in the Registry in the usual way. The proceeding
will then be allocated in accordance with the normal procedure
for the random allocation of new matters.
16. When a Duty Judge’s orders call for immediate
Registry action, such as the entering up of orders made,
the papers are sent to the Registry immediately following
the hearing. Where the application is not concluded within
business hours, the associate makes appropriate arrangements
with the Duty Registrar. These include advising the Duty
Registrar before 5.30 pm of the likelihood that the application
will not be concluded until after that time.
Corporations
17. Urgent applications in corporations matters should
be made to the Corporations Judge in accordance with the
Notice to Litigants and Practitioners “Corporations
Matters – Administrative Arrangements”.
Transfer by Duty Judge
18. Where appropriate, the Duty Judge may transfer a matter
to the Corporations Judge or to the Registrar.
