Papp and Myers (No 2)

In *Papp and Myers (No 2)*, Harper J of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia considered an application by the Respondent Mother seeking an adjournment of final hearing dates scheduled for 27 and 28 November 2019. The application was filed on 29 October 2019.

The primary legal issue before the court was whether the Respondent Mother had demonstrated sufficient grounds to warrant an adjournment of the final hearing. This involved assessing the reasons provided for the requested delay against the court's general principles regarding the efficient conduct of litigation and the need to avoid undue prejudice to the parties.

Harper J dismissed the application for adjournment, finding that the grounds presented were not compelling enough to justify disrupting the already scheduled final hearing. The court reasoned that the Respondent Mother had not adequately explained the delay in filing her trial affidavit and that granting the adjournment would likely cause prejudice to the Applicant Father. However, the court did grant an extension for the Respondent Mother to file and serve her trial affidavit, setting a new deadline of 15 November 2019. The court also vacated a previously scheduled compliance check on 11 November 2019 and relisted the matter for a compliance check on 18 November 2019, confirming the final hearing dates.