The Supreme Court of Victoria has reset its expectations for the preparation and management of personal injury litigation.
Practice Note SC CL 3 commenced on 1 July 2026 and applies to new proceedings in the Personal Injuries List, Institutional Liability List and Dust Diseases List. It consolidates and replaces the previous practice notes and notices governing these areas.
The changes respond to substantial growth in the Court's personal injury workload. The relevant lists now contain more than 3,000 pending cases — more than two-and-a-half times the number recorded at the beginning of 2020 — and represent approximately one-third of the Court's civil caseload.
The message from the Court is clear: parties should prepare earlier, identify the real issues sooner and avoid leaving expert evidence or procedural disputes until the latter stages of a proceeding. IDP welcomes that approach. It reflects the way we seek to conduct litigation: with early analysis of the evidence, a clear understanding of the issues in dispute and a focus on resolving matters as efficiently as possible. The new Practice Note provides a stronger framework for all parties to adopt that approach from the outset.
Parties should prepare earlier, identify the real issues sooner and avoid leaving expert evidence or procedural disputes until the latter stages of a proceeding.
Key developments in the Practice Note
Earlier preparation before proceedings are served
The Court expects plaintiff practitioners to have completed the necessary investigations and obtained the primary evidence required to progress a matter before serving a writ.
When serving a statement of claim, plaintiffs should generally also be ready to provide critical documents, including relevant medical and economic loss records. A proceeding should not be commenced on the assumption that substantial additional time will be available to obtain these materials after the interlocutory timetable begins.
These requirements are intended to ensure that parties are in a position to identify and assess the central issues from an early stage of the proceeding.
Court appearances
Non-admitted persons may appear at directions hearings but must seek leave of the Court before the directions hearing.
Expert evidence
Timetabling orders issued by the Court will require plaintiffs to serve a notice identifying the expert evidence they intend to adduce at trial.
After the notice is served, defendants will have 21 days to serve a responsive notice setting out the expert evidence they intend to rely upon.
Leave of the Court will be required where a party seeks to rely on expert evidence that was not identified in accordance with the timetabling orders.
Further, where more than one party in a proceeding intends to adduce expert forensic accounting evidence, the parties will generally be expected to jointly engage a single expert.
These changes reinforce the need for parties to consider their expert evidence carefully and at an early stage of the proceeding.
Interlocutory applications
Practitioners are required to confer before the hearing of any interlocutory application in an effort to resolve or narrow the issues in dispute.
Applications concerning pleadings, discovery, interrogatories or subpoenas are expected to be made sufficiently early to allow them to be determined before mediation.
The PN also expects each party to set out its position in a single piece of correspondence during the conferral process. In discovery applications, parties will be required to jointly complete a table briefly setting out each party's position in relation to each category of documents sought.
These requirements provide a useful opportunity for parties to identify the real points of disagreement, engage constructively and, where possible, resolve interlocutory issues without the need for a contested hearing.
The new arrangements should support earlier and better-informed assessment of claims, more effective mediation and fewer late applications, adjournments and vacated trial dates. They will, however, require practitioners on all sides to make important decisions earlier and to maintain close control of evidence, experts and procedural deadlines from the beginning of a proceeding.
The full Practice Note is available from the Supreme Court of Victoria's website.
← Back to News & Insights