Initially, the enactment of the Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) together with the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) had the modest goal to streamline and simplify procedures across all levels of the civil justice system. However, the new Act embraced the Supreme Court’s adoption of case management and elevated its significance through the mandatory legislative requirement that the court must seek to facilitate the just, quick and cheap resolution of the real issues in the proceedings. This central objective galvanised support for numerous procedural changes including those affecting discovery and expert evidence.
This text is based on the conference held in the Banco Court of the Supreme Court of New South Wales to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Civil Procedure Act 2005. The conference examined the changes the legislation had wrought and considered what future reforms may be needed. The speakers at the conference and contributors to this text are eminent and experienced judges, practitioners and academics, including the Chief Justice of New South Wales TF Bathurst AC, Justice of Appeal John Basten, Chief Judge in Equity Patricia Bergin, Acting Justice of Appeal Ronald Sackville AO and Justice Geoff Lindsay.
The topics covered in the text include:
- Case management
- The overriding purpose
- Proportionality
- Expense Reduction Analysts Group Pty Ltd v Armstrong Strategic Management and Marketing Pty Ltd (2013) 250 CLR 303
- Expectations of legal practitioners
- The experience in England and Wales after the Jackson reforms
- Supreme Court Practice Note SC Eq 11 Disclosure in the Equity Division
- Discovery reforms based on a comparative study of other jurisdictions
- Concurrent expert evidence, also known as ‘hot-tubbing’
- Costs
- Alternative dispute resolution and pre-litigation requirements
- Representative proceedings, also known as class actions
- Freezing/Mareva orders
- The need for quantitative research to allow for the evaluation of reforms.
Practice