High Court of Australia Registry Operations

22/03/2020

COVID-19

The justices of the High Court have issued Practice Direction No 1 and Practice Direction No 2 of 2020, which take effect tomorrow Monday 23 March 2020 “in relation to some of the measures the Court has implemented to ensure that the High Court Registry can continue to offer its full range of services to litigants, practitioners and members of the public during the current period”.

The High Court has advised as follows.

Practice Direction No 1 of 2020 Electronic Filing of Documents

One measure is to move to a form of electronic filing for cases filed prior to the implementation of the Digital Lodgement System on 1 January 2020. For pending cases filed prior to 1 January 2020 documents should be filed as attachments to an email where possible. This will remove the need for litigants and practitioners to attend the Registry counter to file their documents in pre-2020 cases.

Practice Direction No 2 of 2020 Opening of the Registry

The filing of most if not all material electronically (either by email or through the new Digital Lodgement System) will reduce the need for the Registry to remain open for six hours each working day as is provided by Practice Direction No 2 of 2017. Registry opening hours will from 23 March 2020 be reduced to 10:00am to 1:00pm.

The Practice Directions are also available on the High Court website.

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