Practice Direction No. 1 dated 23 August 2002

We, the President, Deputy President and Members of the Defence Force Discipline Appeal Tribunal, make the following Practice Direction No 1.

Dated 23 August 2002

P C Heerey J
President

Peter G Underwood J
Deputy President

D Mildren J
Member

K P Duggan J
Member

Definitions

1. In this Practice Direction, unless the context otherwise indicates-

"Act" means the Defence Force Discipline Appeals Act 1955 (Cth)

"appeal" includes application for leave to appeal and an application for extension of time for appeal

"appellant" includes an applicant for leave to appeal or for extension of time for appeal

"conviction" includes a prescribed acquittal as defined in s 4(1) of the Act

"Deputy President" means the Deputy President of the Tribunal

"Member" means a member of the Tribunal including the President or Deputy President

"President" means the President of the Tribunal

"Registrar" means the Registrar or a Deputy Registrar of the Tribunal

"Regulations" means the Defence Force Discipline Appeals Regulations
1957 (Cth)

"Tribunal" means the Defence Force Discipline Appeal Tribunal

Forms

2. The forms in the Schedule, or forms as near thereto as the circumstances permit, shall be used in all cases to which such forms are applicable.

Forwarding of documents to other party

3. Where any notice or document is lodged with the Registrar pursuant to the Act, the Regulations or this Practice Direction, the Registrar shall cause a copy thereof to be forwarded to any other party.

Notices of Appeal etc

4.

(1) A notice of appeal from a court martial or Defence Force Magistrate shall be in Form 1 as appropriate.

(2) A notice of appeal from a single Member of the Tribunal shall be in Form 1 as appropriate.

(3) An application for leave to appeal shall be in Form 1 as appropriate.

(4) An application for extension of time to appeal shall be in Form 1 as appropriate and shall be supported by affidavit setting out:
(a) the reasons why the appeal was not lodged in time;
(b) the grounds of the proposed appeal; and
(c) why such grounds have a reasonable prospect of success.

(5) All the foregoing documents shall be lodged with the Registrar, Defence Force Discipline Appeal Tribunal, c/- Federal Court of Australia, Commonwealth Law Courts Building, Childers Street, Canberra ACT 2601 or one of the persons specified in reg 9(1) of the Regulations.

Notice of Address for Service

5. Within 14 days of receipt of a notice of appeal or an application for leave to appeal or an application for extension of time for appeal a respondent shall lodge with the Registrar a notice of address for service in accordance with Form 2.

Directions

6.

(1) Any application seeking directions as to the conduct of an appeal (including the grant of legal aid pursuant to reg 11 of the Regulations) shall be made by an application in Form 3.

(2) Directions as to the conduct of an appeal may be given by a Member or the Registrar, whether or not such directions are sought by a party.

(3) For the purpose of giving, or considering whether to give, such directions a hearing may, if necessary, be held.

(4) A hearing may be conducted by video link or telephone.

Affidavits

7. An affidavit shall be in Form 4.

Preparation of Appeal Book

8.

1) The appeal book for the use of the Tribunal on an appeal shall unless otherwise directed be prepared by the respondent in such manner and in such number of copies as the Registrar shall direct.

(2) The appeal book shall contain only such material as is relevant to the appeal.

(3) Without prejudice to the generality of (2), the appeal book shall not include documents which are:

(a) not relevant to the issues to be argued on the appeal; or
(b) duplicates of other documents.

(4) The Registrar shall fix an appointment for the settling of the contents of the appeal book and give the parties reasonable notice of such appointment.

(5) The respondent shall, not less than 14 days before the appointment, lodge with the Registrar a list of proposed contents of the appeal book.

(6) The Registrar shall forward to the appellant a copy of the respondent's list of proposed contents.

(7) Upon receipt of a copy of the respondent's list of proposed contents the appellant shall lodge with the Registrar a list of any proposed additions to or deletions from the respondent's list.

(8) Unless the Registrar otherwise orders, it shall not be necessary for the parties to attend at the appointment but the Registrar may at any time, in relation to the contents of the appeal book:

(a) communicate with the parties; or
(b) direct the parties to communicate with each other.

(9) At the appointment to settle the appeal book the Registrar shall determine what documents and matter shall be included in the appeal book.

Listing of Appeal

9. The Registrar shall notify the parties of the date, time and place for the hearing of the appeal.

Outlines of Submissions

10. Each party shall prepare a written outline of that party's submissions on the appeal.

11. The outline of submissions shall contain concise statements of:

(1) the issues that the appeal presents;

(2) an outline of the argument to be presented on each issue, specifying the steps in the argument, and any legislation, reference to authority or finding of fact to be relied upon in support of each step;

(3) where there is to be a challenge to any findings of fact, the error (including any failure to make a finding of fact) should be identified, the finding which the party contends ought to have been made should be specified, and the reasons it is said that an error has been made should be given. Reference to the evidence intended to be relied upon in support of the argument should be supplied.

13. The respondent shall lodge with the Registrar an outline of submissions by 4 pm, 3 clear working days before the date of hearing of the appeal.

14. The Registrar shall forward each outline to the opposing party as soon as practicable after the receipt thereof.

15. The outline of submissions should not ordinarily exceed 10 pages of double spaced typing, unless leave is obtained from the Registrar to lodge a more lengthy document.

16. All references to the appeal book in the submissions should refer to the relevant page and the relevant part of the page, eg AB 27.5 - 28.2.

17. Similarly, references to authority should give the case name, citation and refer to the relevant paragraph or page and the relevant part of the page, eg A v B (1964) 112 CLR 210 at 212.5 to 212.7, C v D (1998) 196 CLR 318 at [14].

18. It is expected that the oral arguments will follow the outline of submissions. New issues, not included in the outline, may not be advanced on the hearing of the appeal except with the leave of the Tribunal.

Lists of Authorities

19. Each list of authorities and legislation should be divided into two parts. Part "A" should contain only the authorities and legislation from which passages are to be read. Part "B" should contain the authorities and legislation to which counsel might refer but from which passages are not to be read. The relevant sections of legislation should be specified.

20. The Tribunal will supply for its own use up to a maximum of ten of the cases in Part "A" of the list marked with a single asterisk where those cases are reported in the Commonwealth Law Reports, Federal Court Reports, Australian Law Reports, the authorised reports of the State or Territory where the appeal is to be heard, or are unreported Tribunal cases.

21. Counsel may identify in Part "A" five cases in addition to those referred to in paragraph 20 above to which they wish to refer to at some length. These cases are to be identified on the list by a double asterisk.

22. A party who intends to cite from a book or a case other than one referred to in the Reports in par 20 above shall provide photocopies of the relevant parts of the book or the Report for the use of the Tribunal to be handed up during argument.

23. Three copies of the list of the authorities and legislation referred to in Part "A" should be lodged with the Registrar at the place where the appeal is to be heard not less than two working days before the date of hearing of the appeal. Copies of the Act, the Defence Force Discipline Act 1982 and the regulations thereunder need not be supplied.

Application to call further evidence

24.

1) Where an appellant intends to ask the Tribunal to consider further evidence pursuant to s 23(2) of the Act the appellant shall give to the Registrar written notice of such intention as soon as possible.

(2) The notice shall include:
(a) a brief summary of such evidence; and
(b) a statement as to how it satisfies the requirements of pars (a), (b) and (c) of s 23(2) of the Act.

(3) Upon receipt of such notice the Registrar shall convene a directions hearing.

Abandonment

25. The appellant may, pursuant to reg 12 of the Regulations, lodge a notice of discontinuance of the appeal. The notice shall be in accordance with Form 5.

26. The Tribunal may, at the request of the respondent or of its own motion, give notice to an appellant that if some specified act, being an act necessary for the prosecution of the appeal, is not done within the time specified in the notice the appeal shall be deemed to be abandoned. The notice shall be in accordance with Form 6.

27. If the appellant does not appear, either personally or by counsel, at the time and place fixed for the hearing of the appeal the Tribunal (or a single Member when the Tribunal is so constituted) may declare that the appeal is deemed to be abandoned.

Dress

28. On the hearing of an appeal the dress for counsel shall be such as would be worn in the Court of Criminal Appeal or equivalent in the State or Territory where the hearing takes place.

Appellant in Custody

29. The certificate signed by the Registrar pursuant to reg 16 of the Regulations shall be in accordance with Form 7.

Notices

30. A notice or document may be lodged or forwarded by:

(a) hand delivery;
(b) ordinary pre-paid post;
(c) fax; or
(d) e-mail.

Non-compliance

31. The Tribunal, a member of the Tribunal or the Registrar may excuse non-compliance with this Practice Direction on such terms as may be just.

Copies of legislation etc

32. Upon receipt of a notice of appeal, application for leave to appeal or application for extension of time for appeal the Registrar shall forward to the appellant, free of charge, a copy of the Act, the Regulations and this Practice Direction.

THE SCHEDULE

Form	Description	RTF
1	Appeal / Application for leave to appeal / Application for extension of time
2	Notice of address for service
3	Application for directions
4	Affidavit
5	Notice of discontinuance
6	Notice of deemed abandonment
7	Certificate as to appellant in custody