Leedman v Chahhoud

Leedman v Chahhoud is a case where the plaintiff sought an order for the first defendant to appear at the hearing via an audio-visual link. The first defendant, Chahhoud, resides in Lebanon and wished to defend the claim. However, due to an unstable internet connection, the court found that conducting the proceedings by audio-visual link would be too difficult. Additionally, Chahhoud was unable to come to Australia in the short term due to immigration restrictions relating to her youngest child.

The legal issue before the court was whether it should order the first defendant to appear at the hearing via an audio-visual link under the Pt 1A Evidence (Audio and Audio Visual Links) Act 1998. The court had to consider the practical difficulties of conducting the proceedings via an audio-visual link and the defendant's inability to attend the hearing in person.

The court found that it would not be practicable to order the first defendant to appear at the hearing via an audio-visual link due to the unstable internet connection in Lebanon. The court also considered that it was not in the interests of justice to adjourn the proceedings indefinitely. The court concluded that the proceedings should be adjourned until such time as the first defendant could appear in person or the audio-visual link issue was resolved.

The court ordered that the proceedings be adjourned until a date certain, to be determined by the parties, or until further order of the court. The court also ordered that the parties were to make all reasonable endeavours to resolve the issue of the first defendant's appearance at the hearing and to report to the court on their progress.