The Chief Justice said that the object of the trial is to seek to “better manage the listing and determination of duty work in the context of the Court’s National Court Framework which uses the individual docket structure”. This has been supplemented by the publication of a new general practice note.

Mortimer CJ explained:

The GPN-DUTY practice note formalises some aspects of the Court’s existing practice in relation to duty applications and also introduces a new requirement in the form of a certificate of urgency that must be provided in support of a duty application. The form of the certificate of urgency is set out in Annexure A to the GPN-DUTY practice note. An applicant or their legal representative must certify, amongst other things, that they have read and thoroughly familiarised themselves with the GPN-DUTY practice note. The certificate of urgency provided by the applicant will be considered by the relevant Duty Judge to determine whether a duty application is attended by sufficient urgency to justify the application (or part of the application) being determined by a Duty Judge on an urgent basis outside the usual Docket and/or Specialty List Arrangements.

The Notice helpfully lists a first point of contact for urgent applications, the information to be provided to the Court and the manner for filing urgent applications.

The Court will monitor and assess whether the trial should be extended and/or modified. Feedback can be submitted by Practitioners via DutyTrial@fedcourt.gov.au