Practice Notes provide information about particular aspects of the Court's practice, procedure and organisation. They sit alongside the Rules of Court to provide guidance in relation to the conduct of proceedings. Lawyers with the conduct of proceedings are expected to be familiar with their content and act in accordance with that guidance unless directed otherwise.
From 30 January 2017 the Court introduces a new system of publishing and organising its Practice Notes to make them easier to locate and navigate and ensure the information provided is up to date.
Each Practice Note is designated with the letter "SC" followed by an abbreviation denoting the Division of the Court to which it applies or the General designation followed by a number.
| SC CA | Court of Appeal |
| SC CC | Commercial Court |
| SC CL | Common Law Division |
| SC CR | Criminal Division |
| SC GEN | General |
Where changes are made to a Practice Note, it will retain its designation. The body of the Practice Note will contain its new operative date and a history of amendments and a copy of the superseded version will be retained in the Practice Notes Archive.
Notices to the Profession provide information to practitioners about matters of a more temporal nature such as advising which judges are responsible for which specialist lists for the year; reminders to the profession about certain rules and practices if it appears there is confusion or non-compliance and notices from the Prothonotary or a Registrar about a matter of registry practice.
| Practice note | Division | Date of publication | Documents |
|---|---|---|---|
| This Notice to the Profession relates to criminal trials by judge alone pursuant to Chapter 9 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009. | Criminal Division, Notice to the Profession | Notice to the Profession - Trial by judge alone (pdf 236.94KB) | |
| The purpose of this Practice Note is to set out the procedure for applications for a sentence indication. | Criminal Division | SC CR 11 - Applications for sentence indications (pdf 246.25KB) | |
| This Practice Note describes the procedures to be followed in the Testators Family Maintenance List. | Common Law Division | SC CL 7 - Testators Family Maintenance (Second revision) (pdf 260.42KB) | |
Notice to the Profession - Establishment of Commercial and Retail Leases List This Notice to the Profession relates to a new cross-divisional specialist list for the management of commercial and retail lease matters. |
Common Law Division, Commercial Court, Notice to the Profession | Notice to the Profession - Establishment of Commercial and Retail Leases List (pdf 128.98KB) | |
| This Practice Note sets out the practice followed in Court of Appeal criminal interlocutory appeals and reserved questions of law. | Court of Appeal | SC CA 2 - Interlocutory Appeals and Reserved Questions of Law in Criminal Proceedings (pdf 241.36KB) | |
| This Notice to the Profession outlines changes to in-person hearings. | General, Notice to the Profession | Notice to the Profession - In-Person Hearings (pdf 107.32KB) | |
| The Court encourages the active participation of junior counsel in cases where two or more counsel are briefed for a party. | General, Notice to the Profession | Notice to the Profession - Role of Junior Counsel (pdf 225.92KB) | |
| The purpose of this Practice Note is to explain the reliance that will be placed on details provided by the parties of evidential material to read and relied on, in the context of inspection of civil… | Civil Division, General | SC Gen 20 Inspection of Civil Court Files by Non-Parties (pdf 219.20KB) SC Gen 20 Inspection of Civil Court Files by Non-Parties (docx 49.32KB) | |
| This Notice relates to changes to file inspections and affidavits for proceedings in the Common Law Division and Commercial Court. | Common Law Division, Commercial Court, Notice to the Profession | Notice to the Profession - Changes to File Inspections and Affidavits (pdf 241.50KB) Notice to the Profession - Changes to File Inspections and Affidavits (docx 105.04KB) | |
| The purpose of this Practice Note is to provide guidance on the operation of the Employment and Industrial List, a case management list within the Common Law Division of the Court. | Common Law Division | SC CL 11 - Employment and Industrial List (Second revision) (pdf 177.86KB) SC CL 11 - Employment and Industrial List (Second revision) (docx 62.64KB) |