Federal Court of Australia

Applications for interlocutory relief
(No. Q3/99, 14 December 1999)
NB: This Notice to Practitioners is superseded by Applications for Interlocutory Relief dated 23 February 2005)

The court in Queensland has adopted the following process for the listing of applications for interlocutory relief to ensure they are dealt with in an efficient and timely manner.

Where injunctive relief is sought, the party seeking the injunction is required to satisfy the court at the time of filing of the application that undertakings have been requested from the party against whom the injunction is sought and that none have been forthcoming. If no undertakings have been sought, a satisfactory explanation as to why they have not been sought should be provided.

An application for interlocutory relief must generally be accompanied by an "information sheet" which is available from the registry. If an urgent hearing is required, a letter which outlines the circumstances of the urgency must also be provided to the court.

The party lodging the documents must pay the filing fee before the documents will be accepted. There is provision for deferral of payment of this fee where there is an overriding urgency. The usual provisions relating to waiver and exemption of fees apply.

The party lodging the documents will be given a receipt for the documents. The application for interlocutory relief and any accompanying material will then be referred to the docket judge for allocation of a hearing date. Registry staff will contact the person whose name appears on the receipt regarding collection of service copies of the documentation as soon as it is available (ordinarily within a day or so of filing). If any delay is expected, the parties will be contacted and advised accordingly.

The judge may have given various directions regarding the conduct of the hearing of the application for interlocutory relief such as the preparation of written submissions. These will generally be noted on the reverse side of a formal notice which is stapled to service copies of the application for interlocutory relief. It is the responsibility of all parties to the application for interlocutory relief to check whether there are any notations on that form as no further notice of any directions which have been given will be provided by the court.

District Registrar