Abdirahman v Assetlink Link Services (17) Pty Limited (No 2)

In *Abdirahman v Assetlink Link Services (17) Pty Limited (No 2)*, Riley J of the Federal Court of Australia considered an application by prospective applicants seeking discovery of documents from the prospective respondent. The dispute concerned the prospective applicants' entitlement to obtain certain documents to assist them in deciding whether to commence substantive proceedings.

The primary legal issue before the Court was whether the prospective applicants had satisfied the requirements of rule 7.23(1)(b) of the Federal Court Rules 2011 (Cth), which mandates that a prospective applicant must demonstrate that they have a "subjective belief" that they have a claim and that the documents sought would assist them in deciding whether to commence proceedings. Specifically, the Court had to determine if the evidence established that each prospective applicant genuinely believed they had a claim and that the requested documents were necessary for that assessment.

Riley J reasoned that the evidence presented did not clearly establish the required subjective belief for each prospective applicant in relation to the documents sought. For instance, regarding contracts of employment, while a copy of a contract for one employee was annexed, the Court could not infer that other prospective applicants still lacked their own contracts or that inspecting a copy would assist them in deciding to commence proceedings. Similarly, for position descriptions, the Court inferred that these were only relevant if a contract of employment was unavailable, and as this unavailability was not proven for any specific applicant, discovery could not be ordered. The Court concluded that without a clear statement or sufficient evidence demonstrating the subjective belief and the necessity of the documents for each individual, it could not make orders for discovery.

Consequently, the Court made no orders for the prospective respondent to provide any of the documents sought by the prospective applicants.