Jones v Braund [2020] NSWDC 32

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Jones v Braund [2020] NSWDC 32 Hearing dates: 24-29 February 2020, 2 March 2020 Date of orders: 02 March 2020 Decision date: 02 March 2020 Jurisdiction: Civil Before: Abadee DCJ Decision: See paragraphs 13, 16-18, 37-38 Catchwords: PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – application to further amend statement of particulars – application made during hearing – impact on justice and efficient use of judicial resources

COSTS – claim for out-of-pocket expenses – claim for legal costs – claim for third party costs by employer to unrepresented litigant – whether an unrepresented litigant can claim costs for his time in preparing for and attending court proceedings Legislation Cited: Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) Cases Cited: Bell Lawyers Pty Ltd v Pentelow [2019] HCA 29 Cachia v Haines (1994) 179 CLR 403 Chaina v The Presbyterian Church (NSW) Property Trust (2007) 69 NSWLR 533 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Mr R Jones (Plaintiff) Mr M Braund (Defendant) Representation: Counsel: Plaintiff appeared in person Mr R O'Keefe for the Defendant

Solicitors: Mills Oakley for the Defendant File Number(s): 2018/135378 Publication restriction: Nil

Judgment 1. Today is day 6 of a trial that was given a five-day estimate. The plaintiff, who has been unrepresented since March 2019, applies, pursuant to s 64 of the Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) to further amend his amended statement of particulars. 2. This application was foreshadowed on day 3. I directed the plaintiff to serve the proposed amendment on the defendant, which occurred overnight on day 4. However, since then the trial has been dominated by the process of the expert witnesses for the parties (4 of them) giving evidence concurrently. I determined that this process take precedence over the amendment application, with the result that the amendment application is now being heard now. 3. The amendments are in three categories: 1. first, under the section in the document headed 'Particulars of Out of Pocket Expenses', there are revised or new items C to I (inclusive); 2. secondly, there are a series of documents and an apparently revised schedule of future out of pocket expenses or at least a reference to them; and 3. thirdly, in a covering letter supplied to the Court by the company, Sydney Building Defects Inspections and Reports dated 27 February 2020, there is a claim in respect to the plaintiff's time and costs of preparing for and attending Court during the trial. 1. The defendant accepts some part, but not all, of the first category of amendments. He opposes the second categories of amendment. I do not understand him to vigorously oppose the second category.