High Court of Australia
Revised Special Leave Process
The High Court of Australia has revised the process for the consideraton of applicatons for special leave to appeal, applicatons for leave to appeal and applicatons for removal. The Court will also change the timing and manner of publicaton of its decisions in relaton to these applicatons.
Consideration of applications
As is the current practice, all applications will be considered by the Court, in the first instance, on the basis of the written material.
Applications in which the applicant is unrepresented will generally be determined by two Justices. Applications in which the applicant is represented will now generally be determined by all seven Justices.
The Registry will refer applications to the Justices at the commencement of each sitting period. The Justices will meet on the first Monday of the following sitting period to consider the applications and will publish their decisions on the afternoon of the first Thursday of that sitting period.
Publication of dispositions
The decisions of the Court in applications have until now been published by the Justices sitting in court, in the absence of the parties, to pronounce orders and publish the written reasons for their decision (disposition) in each application. From December 2023 the Justices will publish the dispositions on the Court's website rather than in open court. This will streamline the publication process and will ensure that the publication of the Court's decisions is immediate and that the decisions are publicly accessible on the Court's website.
The Court's decisions will be provided to the parties in the usual way, through the Court's Digital Lodgement System, at the same time as they are published on the Court's website. The Registry will continue to publish the results sheet on the day the decisions are published.
Dispositions will continue to be published on the AustLII and Jade BarNet websites.
To read about the Revised Special Leave Process click HERE to view the full atrical.