Inbrief

• Federal Court of Australia – an updated National Practitioners/Litigants Guide To Virtual Hearings And Microsoft Teams and Special Measures note In Response to COVID-19- Admiralty And Maritime (Smin-2);

• A reminder from the District Court of NSW regarding arrangements for the hearing of civil matters. All the District Court’s announcements and procedures are available on its COVID-19 (coronavirus) page;

• Federal Circuit Court - COVID-19: Important information for migration applicants; and

• Children’s Court of NSW – Factsheet regarding Courtroom Meeting Space

Members are advised in this regard that, although the Bar Association is regularly updating the COVID-19 page of its website as information comes to hand, please refer to the latest court resources directly as developments are changing quickly at this time. Do not make any assumptions regarding your case without first doing so. Links to the various court and tribunal pages are provided in the body of the guide.

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COVID - 19 : Information for Attending Court

The New South Wales Bar Association’s consolidated guide to COVID-19-related court arrangements has today again been updated in terms of recent developments and includes:

• The Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) – Update 15 from this afternoon;

• Land and Environment Court Protocol for the Issuing of Class 5 Proceedings;

• A Child Dispute Services in-person interview protocol from the Family Court of Australia and the Federal Circuit Court;

• District Court of NSW - Today's new Criminal Practice Note 18 regarding criminal trials, new Criminal Practice Note 19 regarding Criminal Trials at Circuit Sittings and a revised Civil Practice Note 1 regarding Case Management in the General List, all of which commence next Monday 6 April. The Court has also issued a Virtual Court Media User Guide; and

• Children’s Court of NSW - The President of the Children’s Court has now issued Public Notice No 3 specifically dealing the management of care proceedings during the COVID-19 pandemic with a view to limiting the need for legal practitioners to appear in care proceedings as much as possible. More information relating to the operation of the Children’s Court during the pandemic can now be found in one location on the Court's website

Members are advised in this regard that, although the Bar Association is regularly updating the COVID-19 page of its website as information comes to hand, please refer to the latest court resources directly as developments are changing quickly at this time. Do not make any assumptions regarding your case without first doing so. Links to the various court and tribunal pages are provided in the body of the guide.

The Public Defenders will be collating all feedback received. The information is provided confidentially, but Public Defenders ask that respondents leave their contact details so that permission can be sought to refer to particular cases or to use quotations.

The Public Defenders COVID-19 online Resources for Criminal Lawyers page can be found here

This modern floor has a large conference room and other amenities.

For enquiries and outgoings, please contact Jackie Charles, Clerk of Chambers, clerk@level22.com.au Ph: 02 9151 2226. Enquiries will be treated in the strictest confidence.

The new and revised Practice Notes take effect on Monday 6 April 2020.

The Bar Association is also preparing a summary of stimulus package measures that will be available to chambers and members which we hope to have ready in the next few days.

Supreme Court – Procedure for Civil Matters

I have today received a communication from the Chief Justice in which he brought the Bar Association up to date as to how civil matters are proceeding in his court. He also brought attention to the fact that the court is endeavouring to hear all civil matters which can be heard subject to the inevitable difficulties involved in the use of the available remote technology.

So far as those difficulties with video facilities are concerned, the Chief Justice noted that the current problems being experienced are to a significant degree due to limits on the capacity of the server through which video hearings are conducted to service the current level of demand, and that endeavours are currently being made to extend its capacity and limit the demand by listing matters by way of staggered hearings.

On a positive note, the Chief Justice has advised that the court, with the co-operation of the profession which is appreciated by the court, has in fact managed to dispose of a great proportion of the civil matters which have been listed, including the hearing of all listed civil appeals as of 1 April 2020.

Available information indicates that similar levels of disposal are being achieved in the District Court.

Resolution of criminal cases

As mentioned in In Brief earlier today, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions has released a letter to concerned parties including the Bar Association regarding COVID-19 and progression and early resolution of criminal cases.

In her letter the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions notes that, in the context of the criminal justice system, of most impact has been the suspension of the commencement of new jury trials. The CDPP have advised that they propose to actively prepare and run legal arguments where that is able to be facilitated by the courts. The CDPP is also ready, willing and able to engage in processes aimed at achieving either a resolution of the entire case, or a narrowing of the issues that ultimately need to be litigated, and CDPP solicitors have been asked to review current cases to identify those which have such potential.

The CDPP is aware of the difficulties being faced by some members of the Criminal Bar at this difficult time, and is looking at how it can best utilise all its resources, including the private Bar, as it develops future work flows. The Director has recognised the crucial role of the private Bar in the criminal justice system and has undertaken that her Office will do all it can to assist in the current circumstances.

The Bar Association has also been in contact today with the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, senior officers in his Department and the Acting Senior Crown Prosecutor, who have given similar reassurances. We are in productive and continuing communication with them to progress matters where realistic and possible within the current restrictions, and with sensitivity to the challenges being experienced by members of the community and the profession at this time. Those discussions are ongoing and I will provide a further update in the coming days.

COVID - 19 : Information for Attending Court

The New South Wales Bar Association’s consolidated guide to COVID-19-related court arrangements has today again been updated in terms of recent developments and includes:

• District Court of NSW - Update on contact details for bail variations;

• The Chief Magistrate’s Memorandum No 8 – Covid-19 Arrangements - Reviews of Bail, which is intended to clarify Paragraph 13 of the Chief Magistrate’s Memorandum dated 24 March 2020 "Listing Adjustments during COVID-19 Pandemic"; and

• E-bulletin No 101 - April 2020 from the President of the Workers Compensation Commission.

Members are advised in this regard that, although the Bar Association is regularly updating the COVID-19 page of its website as information comes to hand, please refer to the latest court resources directly as developments are changing quickly at this time. Do not make any assumptions regarding your case without first doing so. Links to the various court and tribunal pages are provided in the body of the guide.

The DRS will continue to provide updates as the situation with COVID-19 progresses, and members will be kept informed of developments.

Barristers working remotely can have at their fingertips complete and searchable access to all of the Victorian Reports and Victorian Law Reports enriched by JADE citations back to the late 1800s. This includes access to PDF facsimiles for use in authorities' bundles.

Uniquely, the Victorian Reports online:

· comprise full text reports (with full headnotes) which are fully hyperlinked, including to the full text decisions of other courts and tribunals and to legislative material;

· like JADE, each report shows citations at the page and paragraph level as well as a list of cases subsequently considering the viewed report; and

· has more comprehensive coverage of early reports (Victorian Law Reports) than any other publisher.

To take up this free offer, all that you need to do is to visit https://victorianreports.com.au/account and register. For existing subscribers to the Victorian Reports service through Little William, your paid subscription will not be charged during this time, and your current annual subscription will be automatically extended by three months.

Little William is deeply appreciative of the assistance provided by the Chair of the Council of Law Reporting, Justice Macaulay of the Supreme Court of Victoria, in helping to make this free offer possible. (Little William is a subsidiary of BarNet, the non-profit publisher of JADE (https://jade.io)).

For more information, please visit https://victorianreports.com.au or email sales@victorianreports.com.au

The Centre is also now able to provide a virtual courtroom style arrangement by using the commercial grade video-conferencing (“VC”) services in the Hearing Rooms. The Centre has recently introduced Webex Meetings which can be used to host and conduct multi-party VCs.

The VC services are being offered at no additional charge for use by customers hiring the rooms who would like to conduct a multi-party VCs.

In addition to using the new services for mediations and arbitrations, the equipment is also suitable to use in the rooms to access court proceedings over multiple days.

We are also offering free onsite technical support to assist with setting up VC’s and free access to the internet via Wi-Fi to all parties.

Our Network staff have developed the following guide to assist our customers in understanding what VC platforms apart from Webex Meetings are compatible for use in the Hearing Rooms.

– see the following link: https://www.ccl.com.au/files/documents/Interoperability.pdf

At the moment we are only able to provide a single screen in each room but we have additional equipment on order and we hope to be in a position to provide multiscreen VC equipment within the next three weeks.

To enquire about this service or to make a booking please contact Margaret James on 9231-3644 or email: bookings@nswbardrc.com.au

For further information please also see attached the NSW Bar Dispute Resolution Centre Covid-19 Policy.

• Federal Court of Australia – updated Special Measures Information and Practice Note; and

• Family Court of Australia and Federal Circuit Court - Joint Practice Direction 2 of 2020 - Special Measures in Response to COVID-19.

Members are advised in this regard that, although the Bar Association is regularly updating the COVID-19 page of its website as information comes to hand, please refer to the latest court resources directly as developments are changing quickly at this time. Do not make any assumptions regarding your case without first doing so. Links to the various court and tribunal pages are provided in the body of the guide.

The new series is being introduced to improve the typography of the Queensland Reports, by moving to a style which is clearer and more readable.

The new series will continue to be known as the Queensland Reports, but will be published as a set of consecutively numbered volumes - with three volumes published each year.

A new form of citation will also be adopted for this series, using round brackets to identify the year of the judgment and a simpler abbreviation for the series - "QR" rather than "Qd R". So judgments in the new series will be cited in the form: (2020) 1 QR 123.

As with all authorised law reports of the Supreme Court of Queensland, a complete set of this new series will be available on line, free of charge, to register click here.