O'Rafferty v The Queen [No. 2]

In *O'Rafferty v The Queen* [No. 2], the applicant sought to have a perfected appeal re-opened by the Court of Appeal of New South Wales to address an appeal ground that had not been dealt with. The respondent was The Queen.

The central legal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether it possessed the jurisdiction to re-open a criminal appeal after the orders had been perfected, specifically to consider an unaddressed ground of appeal, and whether such re-opening could occur by consent of the parties.

The Court of Appeal determined that its jurisdiction to re-open perfected appeals was limited and did not extend to re-opening a criminal appeal by consent to address an unaddressed ground. The Court referred to the Court Procedures Rules, which excluded such a mechanism for re-opening criminal appeals. The principles governing the finality of judgments and the limited scope of the slip rule were applied.

Consequently, the application was refused.