Castle v United States

In Castle v United States, the applicant, Mr. Castle, sought access to documents in the Court file to prepare a news story for The Age. The requested documents included the reply filed by Mr. Castle, the affidavit filed by the United States, the outline of submissions filed by the United States, the notice of address for service filed by the United States, and the originating application for judicial review filed by Mr. Castle. The parties were given leave to file written submissions in relation to the request, limited to 3 pages. The United States requested that the form of access to the affidavit be limited due to the presence of diplomatic correspondence that was not to be made public without further express written authorization by the United Nations.

The court was required to decide whether to grant the journalist access to the requested documents and, if so, under what conditions. The court noted that if there had been any contact details or irrelevant personal information in the documents, it would have been prepared to consider redacting such details. However, upon review, it was found that there were none. The court also considered the principle of open justice and the potential for suppression or non-publication orders, but found no basis for such orders in this case. The court determined that there was no basis for refusing leave to access the restricted documents.

The court granted the request for access to inspect and copy the documents to be provided to the non-party who made the request. The orders in relation to documents d) and e) were not strictly necessary, but the court included them in the scope of the orders for avoidance of doubt and to recognize that Mr. Castle was informed he would be given an opportunity to be heard before any access was granted. The court did not propose to give the parties an opportunity to be heard again if further non-party requests were made for unrestricted documents, but would do so if any further requests for restricted documents were made.