Changes to Personal Injuries List, Institutional Liability List, Dust Diseases List, and Civil Circuit List.
The Supreme Court has issued a new practice note for personal injury proceedings commencing 1 July 2026.
Practice Note SC CL 3 Personal Injuries Litigation combines and replaces the existing practice notes and notices to the profession for the Personal Injuries List, Institutional Liability List, Dust Diseases List and Civil Circuits List.
These lists have grown steadily and substantially in the last few years. Together, they now have more than 3,000 pending cases in the Court. These lists have more than two and a half times the number of cases recorded at the start of 2020 and now represent around one-third of the Supreme Court's civil caseload. Responding to this growth, the new Practice Note introduces a number of important changes to the way personal injury litigation is run in the Court.
These changes are designed to make sure that:
- matters progress more efficiently
- key issues are identified and explored earlier
- expert evidence is approached in a more structured manner, and
- risks of delays and vacated hearing dates are minimised.
Together these reforms will support the overarching purpose of the Civil Procedure Act 2010 (Vic) and help the Court use its limited resources more effectively for the benefit of all court users.
Key changes in the Personal Injuries Litigation Practice Note include:
- Requirements for plaintiffs to compile critical documents before service of a proceeding, and the early service of critical documents at the same time as serving pleadings.
- New arrangements for the early identification of areas of expert evidence to be called, restrictions on the late service of expert material, and requirements for the use of joint forensic accounting expert evidence.
- Expectations for the conduct of interlocutory applications, including conferral requirements and default page limits on written materials.
- A range of simplified administrative and registry processes, including the ability to issue a summons without obtaining a return date from the registry in advance, and the ability for directions hearings to be conducted ‘on the papers’ in appropriate cases.
Under the new practice note, the Civil Circuit List will also stop being used for new proceedings, with regional proceedings now to be initiated and managed in lists based on their subject matter rather than location. Regional proceedings will continue to be listed for trial in relevant regional circuit sittings.
The new practice note applies to all personal injury proceedings commenced from 1 July 2026 onwards. Certain procedural and administrative arrangements introduced in the new practice note will also start being used to manage existing pending cases in the coming months. Practitioners will be emailed where this is the case.
Access the new practice note. Find details of list-specific arrangements for the Personal Injuries List, Institutional Liability List and Dust Diseases List.