How to list urgent commercial matters in the Supreme Court practice court
Summary
From 29 February 2016, the Supreme Court will no longer hear urgent applications involving a commercial dispute in the general practice court, but by referral to the Commercial Court duty judge or Corporations List managing judge.
This procedure applies for all the common urgent commercial applications: injunctions, caveat removals, mareva and freezing orders.
Urgent applications will be heard with the usual speed, they will just be referred to a specialist commercial judge as soon as an allocation is made.
The full procedure for applications is set out below, as extracted from the Supreme Court's Notice to the Profession entitled: "Updated Practice Court procedures (Commercial Court)" accessible from the Commercial Court page.
How to initiate an urgent application
During ordinary business hours, an application for genuinely urgent relief may be made as follows:
Where a proceeding has not yet been commenced or, if commenced, is not yet under management by a nominated judge, by contacting the Commercial Court Urgent applications number on 8600 2002 (current number as at 30 Marcy 2019)
The application may, depending on the nature of the matter and judicial availability, either be referred to the Commercial Court Duty Judge or the Corporations List Managing Judge.
Where a proceeding is under management by a nominated judge, contact the associate to the judge and then inform the Commercial Court Registry of the allocated return date. If the associate to the managing judge is unavailable, practitioners should contact the Commercial Court Registry on the above number.
An application for urgent relief before the Commercial Court Duty Judge may be initiated outside ordinary business hours by calling the practice court number 8600 2036 (current as at 30 March 2019]
The Commercial Court duty judge's associate after hours number is: 0439 153 522.
If this number doesn't work for any reason, the daily list usually features the Commercial Court duty judge's number.
An applicant seeking urgent relief must be in a position to provide the person so contacted with the information set out in the Schedule to this Notice.
The Supreme Court is well-equipped with associates and a Judge on duty, 365 days a year.
The protocols for making urgent applications in the Arbitration List are set out in Practice Note 8 of 2014.
