The ACT Supreme Court and ACT Magistrates Court have resumed normal operations for all matters.
Prior to the creation of the Court of Appeal, appeals lay to the High Court (from 1934 until 1977) and then to the Federal Court of Australia (from 1977 until 2002). The Court first sat on 31 October 2001 and its first delivered judgment was Suffolk v Meere [2002] ACTCA 1, 28 March 2002. Following the commencement of the Jurisdiction of Courts Legislation Amendment Act 2002 (Cth), which amended the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth), the ACT Court of Appeal exercises full general appellate jurisdiction, including the hearing of appeals from judgments (in both criminal and civil matters) of single judges of the Supreme Court and the Master. The ACT Court of Appeal consists of the four resident judges and eighteen additional judges of the Supreme Court each of whose primary commission is as a judge of the Federal Court of Australia. Except in limited case, as set out in section 37H of the Supreme Court Act 1933, the Court of Appeal is constituted by three judges. Unless it is impractical to do so one of the three judges must be a resident judge. With the retirement of Justice Gray in 2011 the office of the President of the Court of Appeal has since been abolished. Justice Gray was appointed President of the Court of Appeal on 21 December 2007. The first full Court of Appeal sittings were in November 2002. The Court of Appeal sits for 2 weeks in each sitting. Sittings are held in February, May, August and November in each year. Court of Appeal Rules are contained in Part 5.4 of the Court Procedures Rules 2006 (volume 3).
The Court of Appeal is a division of the Supreme Court that hears all appeals from the Supreme and District Courts, and many tribunals. The court doesn’t hear entire cases or have a jury. It deals only with the subject of the appeal. The court comprises three or five judges of the Supreme Court. The judge listens to the arguments by the opposing sides and decides whether an error of law was made or some crucial fact was overlooked in the original hearing. The Court of Appeal can hear civil and criminal cases:
The Court of Appeal can:
If the application is to appeal against a sentence, the court can increase or decrease the length of the sentence. If the court is considering increasing the sentence on appeal, it will tell you so you may withdraw the application. If the Attorney-General appeals, the sentence may be increased.
 The High Court of Australia is able to deal with cases which come to it on appeal or which begin in the High Court itself. Cases which involve interpretation of the Constitution, or where the Court may be invited to depart from one of its previous decisions, or where the Court considers the principle of law involved to be one of major public importance, are normally determined by a full bench comprising all seven Justices if they are available to sit. Other cases which come to the High Court for final determination involve appeals against the decisions of the Supreme Courts of the States and Territories, of the Federal Court of Australia and of the Family Court of Australia and these are dealt with by a full court of not less than two Justices. In addition there are certain matters which can be heard and determined by a single Justice. The subject matter of the cases heard by the Court traverses the whole range of Australian law. It includes, for instance, arbitration, contract, company law, copyright, courts-martial, criminal law and procedure, tax law, insurance, personal injury, property law, family law, trade practices, etc. Most of the Court's work relates to the hearing of appeals against decisions of other courts. There is no automatic right to have an appeal heard by the High Court and parties who wish to appeal must persuade the Court in a preliminary hearing that there are special reasons to cause the appeal to be heard. Decisions of the High Court on appeals are final. There are no further appeals once a matter has been decided by the High Court, and the decision is binding on all other courts throughout Australia. Rules of Court, which are made by the Justices, set out the procedural steps that legal practitioners must comply with in preparing a case for hearing, including the preparation of an Appeal Book. The Appeal Book prepared by the appellant's legal practitioner, contains basic documentation which is necessary background for the Court to consider the issue raised by the appeal. During the hearing, barristers representing the parties present their arguments orally to the Court. This picture was taken in Courtroom 1 of the High Court in Canberra at the beginning of the hearing of the Work Choices case (State of New South Wales v Commonwealth of Australia, State of Western Australia v Commonwealth of Australia, State of South Australia v Commonwealth of Australia, State of Queensland v Commonwealth of Australia, Australian Workers Union & Another v Commonwealth of Australia, Unions NSW & Others v Commonwealth of Australia, State of Victoria v Commonwealth of Australia) on Thursday, 4 May 2006. It is noteworthy in that it involved the most number of counsel (39) ever to appear before the High Court in a case. The Court rarely gives its decision (i.e. the judgment) at the end of a hearing. Rather, the decision is "reserved" and presented some time after the hearing. Each Justice makes his/her own decision on cases, and where decisions are not unanimous, the decision of the majority prevails. The usual practice is for Justices to prepare written reasons for their decisions which are handed down by the Court at a later sitting. Printed copies of the judgments are given to the parties involved immediately after the decision is announced by the Court. The decisions are subsequently recorded in law reports and are now also available on computerised legal data bases. Paper copies of judgments are available to the public, for a fee, by contacting one of the offices of the High Court Registry in Canberra, Sydney or Melbourne. Electronic copies of judgments are available at the AustLII site and other sites free of charge. Decisions of the High Court are binding on all other courts throughout Australia.
The Supreme Court is the State's highest court and is divided into two divisions - the General Division and the Court of Appeal. The General DivisionCivil and criminal actions are determined in the general division. The General Division deals with only the most serious offences such as homicide and related offences, and serious breaches of Commonwealth drug enforcement laws. Judges generally preside over jury trials, where a jury of 12 members of the community decide if an individual is guilty or not guilty of a criminal charge. The General Division also hears appeals from decisions of magistrates sitting in criminal matters in the Magistrates Court. The Division also deals with civil matters of a complex nature or where the amount involved in a dispute is more than $750,000, as well as applications for injunctions and other forms of relief. In Western Australia, most civil trials are heard without a jury. Civil actions are heard by a single judge. Prior to hearing they are usually managed by a registrar who gives directions to the parties to try and ensure that each case settles by agreement between the parties or proceeds to trial in the quickest, most cost effective way, consistently with the need to provide a just outcome. In certain circumstances, civil actions are managed by a judge. The Supreme Court deals with all matters involving wills and the administration of deceased estates. This includes appointing a person to deal with a deceased person's property following death. The Court of AppealThe Court of Appeal Division of the Supreme Court was established on 1 February 2005 following the proclamation of the Acts Amendment (Court of Appeal) Act 2004 (WA) The Court of Appeal hears appeals from decisions of a single Judge of the Supreme Court and from Judges of the District Court as well as various other courts and tribunals. The Court of Appeal also hears criminal appeals against sentences, such as the length of imprisonment, and appeals against conviction. In some cases it is necessary to obtain leave (permission) to appeal before the appeal can proceed. The matters that the Court of Appeal can determine are set out in section 58 of the Supreme Court Act 1935 (WA). Usually matters in the Court of Appeal will be determined by a panel of three judges, although some matters will be heard by two judges or by a single judge. In addition, four judges of Appeal are members of the Industrial Appeal Court, which determines appeals from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission.
Last updated: 18-Jun-2021 [ back to top ] |
What are the cases under the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals?
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