FAMILY LAW ─ APPEAL ─ PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE ─ Appeal against interlocutory orders made by the trial Judge which allowed the husband to amend his Application for Final Orders during the course of the trial to seek orders for costs against the wife’s former solicitor and the former adversarial forensic accounting expert for the wife ─ Where there are no reported case of an application for costs being allowed to be brought against a non-party prior to the delivery of judgment in the proceedings in which the non-party had played a role ─ Where the Court followed the observations of Peter Smith J in the English authority of Phillips v Symes [2004] EWHC 2330 (Ch); [2005] 4 All ER 519 ─ Where the Court found that allowing the claim for costs against the wife’s former solicitor and the former adversarial forensic accounting expert for the wife to be made prior to the delivery of judgment in the substantive proceedings could serve no useful purpose, and had the very considerable, and realised, potential for mischief, particularly when the practice was sought to be defended upon the fallacious ground that the husband was only trying to do them a favour by giving them early notice ─ Where although the Court had no doubt that the trial Judge was motivated by natural justice concerns, allowing the husband to bring a claim for costs against the wife’s former solicitor and the former adversarial forensic accounting expert for the wife was erroneous ─ Applications for leave to appeal granted ─ Appeals allowed.
FAMILY LAW ─ APPEAL ─ PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE ─ Joinder ─ Whether the orders of the trial Judge joined the wife’s former solicitor and the former adversarial forensic accounting expert for the wife to the proceedings, and, if so, whether his Honour erred in doing so ─ Where although the trial Judge’s reasons for judgment may suggest otherwise, his Honour did not make an order joining either the wife’s former solicitor or the former adversarial forensic accounting expert for the wife as parties to the proceedings, nor was there an order for leave to intervene pursuant to s 92 of the Act.
NOTE: The period for seeking special leave to appeal to the High Court has not expired.