What is the Supreme Court of New South Wales?

The Supreme Court of New South Wales is the Highest Court in the system of New South Wales Government. It is the court appeal for the District Court of New South Wales and the ultimate court of appeal for the Local Court of New South Wales. The Supreme Court was originally created by the 1823 Charter of Justice, it now operates under the Supreme Court Act (1970) and the Civil Procedure Act 2005 in New South Wales. The Court has unlimited civil jurisdiction and handles the most serious criminal matters. In the court there are 48 Judges and 4 Associate Judges. Full judges have broader powers than associate judges and there are also some powers of the court exercised by Registrars who are also qualified mediators. Also, there is a structure in place where there is a chief judge in Equity and in the Common Law Division. Generally, matters set down for hearing will have been prepared to a great extent before the hearing takes place and can only be listed with several weeks notice unless it is an urgent application in which case a duty judge is available to hear interlocutory applications and the court also publishes in the Sydney Morning Herald a list of all the hearing dates before the court so that these can easily become a matter of public record.

If you have a matter which is being heard in front of the Supreme court and you require assistance with a matter like this, you should contact us immediately so that we can assist you to prepare appropriately as any hearing before a court like this also requires a large amount of preparation and it is always advantageous to your interests to have legal counsel assisting you with any type of litigation in which you are engaged. You can contact us using the form to the right or by calling us at our office locations listed on our contact page.