Supreme Court of New South Wales Update to the Common Law Practice Note

On 10 September 2026, the Supreme Court of New South Wales issued an updated Practice Note applying to all proceedings commenced and managed in the Common Law Division, General List. Practice Note SC CL 01 will therefore apply to the Court’s management of your general liability portfolio involving large loss. However, it does not apply to proceedings managed in the institutional abuse, professional negligence, defamation (and possession, administrative law and representative action) list.

The important change of note is that all new proceedings will now be subject to Judicial Case Management, defined as “JCM” under the Practice note. In summary:

• Proceedings will be referred for JCM on the first available date after one year from the commencement date, unless brought forward by order of the Court. The judges managing the relevant list are typically Justice Chen and Justice Lonergan in our experience thus far
• The expectation by the Court at the JCM is that a hearing date will be allocated at the first While the Court recognises that some matters will be unable to be listed for hearing, the expectation is those cases will be limited
• Parties must appear with hearing availability (including that of counsel) and with the ability to provide an accurate hearing estimate
• Where the Court determines that the hearing length of a matter is less than five days, the first JCM review date, and all subsequent case management hearings, will be conducted by the Registrar who will, subject to all necessary and appropriate adaptations, apply the JCM hearing procedure
• Not later than five working days prior to the first JCM review date, the parties must serve a copy of the current version of the pleading upon which they rely (including any cross-claims) and a one-page summary of the nature of the proceedings, the relief sought, and any defence raised. Proposed orders should also be available
• The Court has also produced Standard Orders for the purpose of the JCM, which it expects the parties to follow at the first listing (annexed).

What this means for the management of your claims is that:

• There will be a push by the Court to ensure the parties’ evidence, including witness statements, are prepared early. The Court’s indulgence towards plaintiffs who fail to prepare their claims properly will be extremely limited
• We will be unable to resist taking a hearing date any later than 12 months after proceedings are commenced unless there is an exceptional reason
• Where appropriate, and in our larger and complex matters, we should brief counsel at an earlier stage to ensure their availability to appear at the hearing and assist with preparation of our defence
• The expected resolution date of our larger claims will reduce over time.

Please do not hesitate to contact us should you wish to discuss the implications of this revised Practice Note any further. Otherwise, we will continue to ensure our compliance with the Court’s expectations in our management of your claims and make recommendations to give effect to the changes in our advice to you.