Peter Biffin v State of New South Wales [2019] NSWDC 113

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Peter Biffin v State of New South Wales [2019] NSWDC 113 Hearing dates: 20 March 2019 Date of orders: 10 April 2019 Decision date: 10 April 2019 Jurisdiction: Civil Before: Strathdee, DCJ Decision: (1) The Notice of Motion filed 5 December 2018 is dismissed.

(2) The plaintiff to pay the defendant's costs of and incidental to the motion as agreed or assessed. Catchwords: PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – application for discovery before pleading close – whether it is consistent with the just, quick & cheap resolution of the real issue in the proceedings – discovery – premature - oppressive Legislation Cited: Civil Procedure Act 2005 Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 Cases Cited: Commonwealth Bank of Australia v Goater [2016] NSWSC 710 Latec Finance Pty Limited v Jury (1960) 77 WN (NSW) 674; [1960] NSWR 321 Palavi v Radio 2UE Sydney Pty Ltd [2011] NSWCA 264 Sunday Times Newspaper Co Ltd v Sun Newspaper Co Ltd (191) 36 WN (NSW) 72 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Peter Biffin (Plaintiff) State of New South Wales (Defendant) Representation: Counsel: Mr Porter, Solicitor (Applicant) Mr Williams (Respondent)

Solicitors: Armstrong Legal (Applicant) Crown Solicitors (Respondent) File Number(s): 2018/91956 Publication restriction: None

Judgment 1. By Notice of Motion filed on 5 December 2018 the plaintiff/applicant on the motion seeks that the defendant/respondent provide discovery of documents, pursuant to Part 21 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 ('UCPR'), and costs. 2. The plaintiff has a proposed List of Categories of Documents containing 25 documents that it seeks to have discovered by the NSW Police Force and 6 documents from the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing. 3. The defendant opposes the orders sought in the motion.