Nichles v Attorney General of New South Wales

The applicant, Nichles, sought leave to appeal two decisions of the District Court of New South Wales made on 23 September 2024, which concerned criminal proceedings that had since been resolved. Separately, the applicant also sought leave to appeal orders made on 10 October 2024 and 15 August 2024 by the District Court, which dismissed an application for review of a Local Court Registrar’s decision to refuse to issue a Court Attendance Notice for a private prosecution the applicant wished to commence against a judge of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. The appeals were heard by Ward P and McHugh JA.

The primary legal issues before the court were whether the District Court possessed the jurisdiction to hear the appeals from the magistrate's decisions in the first instance, and more broadly, whether the present appeals lacked utility given the circumstances. In relation to the second set of appeals, the court considered the applicant's standing and the appropriateness of a private prosecution in the context of judicial proceedings.

The court reasoned that in the first matter, the underlying criminal proceedings having been resolved rendered the appeal moot and therefore lacking utility. For the second matter, the court found that the applicant had not demonstrated any error in the Registrar's decision to refuse the Court Attendance Notice, nor had they established a proper basis for a private prosecution against a judicial officer in these circumstances. The court concluded that in both sets of proceedings, the applicant had failed to establish grounds for granting leave to appeal.

Consequently, in each proceeding, the summons for leave to appeal was dismissed with costs.