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.

 

1. The Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW): Achievements and Challenges
2. After the Civil Procedure Act
3. The Civil Procedures Regime in New South Wales – A View from 2005
4. The first fifteen years of the English Civil Procedure Rules – Little to Boast About
5. Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) – The Overriding Purpose Provisions
6. The High Court of Australia and Expense Reduction –Achieving Civil Procedure Reform in Practice
7. The Civil Procedure Act and the New Regime for Discovery
8. Discovery – A Comparative Approach to Reform
9. Expert Evidence Since makita - Problems with Concurrent Expert Evidence
10. Opinions About Expert Evidence under the Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW)
11. Representative Proceedings in New South Wales
12. Freezing orders in New South Wales
13. Reforming Civil Procedure and Alternative Dispute Resolution
14. Civil Justice Reform: The Third Phase
15. Civil Procedure, Politics and the Process of Reform

Product Reviews

• (2016) 90 ALJ 832 [PDF 35300]