Islam v Director-General, Justice and Community Safety Directorate

This matter concerned an application for leave to appeal from a costs order made by the Supreme Court. The applicant, a self-represented litigant, sought leave to appeal against the decision of a judge who had declined to make a costs order in their favour.

The central legal issue before Mossop J was whether the primary judge had erred in law by failing to award costs to the self-represented litigant. The application for leave to appeal was predicated on the assertion that such an error had occurred.

Mossop J found no error in the primary judge's decision. The reasoning applied was that the circumstances did not warrant a departure from the general rule that a self-represented litigant is not entitled to recover costs for their own time and effort. The application for leave to appeal was therefore refused.