Notices to practitioners issued
by the NSW District Registrar
Notices of Motion – Listing Arrangements (NSW 2008/2)
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.
