C v S

The parties in this case were C, the plaintiff, and S, the defendant. The dispute was centred around the defendant's request to use certain evidence during the trial, which had not yet been served on the plaintiff. The matter was heard in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The defendant sought to introduce surveillance footage, a desktop investigation report, and an expert report concerning the plaintiff's credit and damages. These materials had not been served on the plaintiff prior to the trial, and the plaintiff argued this was a breach of procedural fairness.

The central legal issues before the court were whether the defendant could rely on the contested evidence, and if so, under what conditions. The court needed to determine if the defendant's application to introduce the evidence was justified and whether it was appropriate to suppress the evidence until a later stage in the trial. Additionally, the court had to consider whether the suppression of the evidence was necessary to protect the fairness of the trial process.

The court granted the defendant's application to tender the contested evidence, subject to the defendant providing an undertaking to pay the applicable filing fee. The court also ordered that the evidence could be introduced at the trial despite not having been served on the plaintiff, subject to any admissibility issues at trial. Furthermore, the court ordered the suppression of the evidence until the conclusion of the plaintiff's evidence in chief. The court found that this was necessary to protect the fairness of the trial and to prevent any potential prejudice to the plaintiff. The court also reserved the costs of the Notice of Motion for determination by the trial judge at the hearing of the proceedings.