Pre-trial case management – Brisbane Supreme Court

What is it?

The civil case management process is designed to assist litigants, in those cases proceeding to trial, to:

  1. refine and reduce the issues to be tried
  2. agree on document management for the trial
  3. finalise the trial plan
  4. address any obstacles which may impact on trial readiness and
  5. formulate directions for the progression of the proceeding to trial.

The process reinforces compliance with the requirements imposed by Practice Direction 7 of 2024 (PDF, 136.6 KB) and Amended Practice Direction 18 of 2018 (PDF, 191.0 KB). The Resolution Registrar is responsible for implementing the process.

What happens?

  • The process is triggered by the filing of a Request for trial date (DOC, 89.5 KB).
  • If the proceeding has been set down for trial by order of the court, the Resolution Registrar may require the parties to attend a conference.
  • The parties are notified that a case management conference has been scheduled.
  • Prior to the conference, it is expected that the parties confer and agree on draft versions of a Trial plan (DOCX, 23.3 KB), List of issues (DOCX, 15.9 KB), and List of matters not in dispute (DOCX, 16.6 KB). The parties are also required to formulate a plan for management of documents at trial and, where appropriate, agree on the content of the Resolution bundle (DOCX, 18.6 KB).
  • At the conference, trial dates are allocated, any dispute concerning the content of the documents is addressed and directions are made, where necessary, concerning the future steps necessary to ready the case for trial.
  • The parties must notify the Resolution Registrar and the Civil List Manager as soon as reasonably practicable if the dispute resolves (rule 308A UCPR), if the trial may require more or fewer days than allocated, or if any party proposes to apply for an adjournment of the trial.

Who is affected?

The process may not apply to a proceeding allocated to a specialised list and managed by a judge. However, parties in certain supervised cases may be required to attend a case management conference at any stage of the proceeding if the supervising judge considers it appropriate.

Any questions?

Any queries concerning the process can be directed to the Resolution Registrar at Resolution.Registrar@courts.qld.gov.au.

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