MALOUF v MALOUF [2006] NSWCA 83

Reported Decision : 65 NSWLR 449

New South Wales Court of Appeal

CITATION: MALOUF v MALOUF [2006] NSWCA 83

HEARING DATE(S): 13 February 2006

JUDGMENT DATE: 21 April 2006

JUDGMENT OF: Mason P at 1; McColl JA at 182; Bryson JA at 183

DECISION: Appeal dismissed with costs

CATCHWORDS: PRACTICE – Unrepresented litigants – Procedural fairness – Duties of trial judges – Judges to ensure litigant understands what is happening at the trial – No duty to advise litigant how to conduct case. - PRACTICE – Directions – Pre-trial directions as to filing of process and affidavits – Mandatory nature of. - EVIDENCE – Experts – Reports – Must be inherently explicable. - APPEAL AND NEW TRIAL – Whether fresh evidence on appeal justifying new trial – Supreme Court Act 1970, s 75A. - LEGAL PRACTITIONERS – "Unbundling" of legal services – Partition of advocacy between lawyer and client – Whether represented litigant may appear as advocate. (D)

LEGISLATION CITED: Supreme Court Act 1970, s 75A

Akins v Abigroup Ltd (1998) 43 NSWLR 539 Blackwood Foodland Pty Ltd v Milne [1971] SASR 403 Briginshaw v Briginshaw (1938) 60 CLR 336 Damjanovic v Maley (2002) 55 NSWLR 149 Hubbard Association of Sociologists International v Anderson and Just (No 2) [1972] VR 577 Longworth v Yelverton (1867) 1 LR Sc & Div 218 Makita (Australia) Pty Ltd v Sprowles (2001) 52 NSWLR 705 Minogue v Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission [1999] FCA 85, 166 ALR 129 CASES CITED: Moscati v Lawson (1835) 7 Car & P 32; 173 ER 14 Newton v Ricketts (1848) 2 Ph 624; 41 ER 1084 Parkinson v Hanbury (1867) 2 LRHL 1 Queensland v J L Holdings (1997) 189 CLR 146 R v Maybury (1865) LT 566 Shuttleworth v Nicholson (1883) 1 Moo & Rob 254; 174 ER 87 State Pollution Control Commission v Australian Iron & Steel Pty Ltd (1992) 29 NSWLR 487 Victims Compensation Fund Corporation v Nguyen (2001) 52 NSWLR 213 Warwick George Malouf v John George Malouf & Anor [2005] NSWSC 9 Watson v Foxman (1995) 49 NSWLR 315