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 The body of the Practice Note will contain its new operative date and a history of amendments and a copy of the superseded version will be retained in the Practice Notes Archive.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
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) | |
Notice to the Profession - Group Proceedings List - 13 October 2020 The purpose of this Notice is to notify court users of the establishment of a new cross-divisional Group Proceedings List in which all group proceedings filed pursuant to Part 4A of the Supreme Court… |
Notice to the Profession | Notice to the Profession - Group Proceedings List pdf (pdf 146.47KB) Notice to the Profession - Group Proceedings List (docx 65.42KB) | |
| 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 purpose of this Notice is to provide updated guidance to practitioners and litigants when commencing certain proceedings in respect of damages for personal injury arising out of the alleged abuse… | Notice to the Profession | Notice to the Profession - Institutional Liability List (pdf 269.53KB) | |
Notice to the Profession - Launch of RedCrest-Probate - 1 July 2020 The Supreme Court has undergone enormous changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and is now in a position to launch RedCrest-Probate effective from 1 July 2020. |
Notice to the Profession | Launch of RedCrest-Probate (pdf 69.85KB) | |
| Costs Court | Notice to the Profession - New Scale of Costs (pdf 146.69KB) | ||
| Notice to the Profession | Notice to the Profession New SCV Mediation Centre (pdf 165.74KB) | ||
| From 1 June 2017 the Court of Appeal will commence a six month pilot of making audio-visual recordings of its criminal hearings publicly available through the Supreme Court of Victoria’s website.… | Notice to the Profession | Pilot streaming of proceedings (pdf 246.15KB) | |
Notice to the Profession - Practice Court (Common Law) - COVID-19 The Principal Judge of the Common Law Division has authorised the issue of the following notice in regards to Practice Court (Common Law) due to coronavirus (COVID-19). |
Notice to the Profession | Notice to the Profession - Practice Court - Common Law (pdf 139.80KB) | |
| 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) |