I note in today's WA Supreme Court List, the matter has been referred to Justice Martin for a Strategic Conference at 9.30am, with the hearing before Justice Solomon set to start at a time not before 11.00am. In the Supplementary Target's Statement, Bullzeye state on pg.29 "In total, the matter has been listed for a trial length of 66 days."
The WA Supreme Court Consolidated Practice Directions 2009 state at Part 4.1.2 (pg.117 of 486), "[20] The objective of the strategic conference will be to devise a general strategy for the future management of the case. Directions implementing that strategy may be made by the case manager at the conclusion of the conference." It appears that the Strategic Conference is to discourage the litigation and encourage settlement, with the legal representatives in attendance. Also, "[16] At the commencement of the strategic conference, the case manager will call upon a legal representative of each party to provide a short presentation upon the issues which that party considers require determination, and the position of that party in respect of each issue.Legal representatives should be as fully briefed as is practicable at that stage of the case. Unless otherwise agreed and directed by the case manager, those statements of position will be 'on the record'."
It is clear from reading the Practice Direction that the Strategic Conference is to occur prior to the contested hearing. It is curious that the parties are appearing before a judge, not the presiding judge in the contest, in a process that is designed to circumvent the contested hearing in the first place. The issue is, that this matter has been running since Monday 15 August. It is surprising that the parties are attending a pre-trial conference after the commencement of the hearing.
If anyone is familiar with WA Supreme Court practice, I would be interested to hear whether this is an effort at settling the dispute after the hearing has started, but in a manner not to compromise the hearing should it fail to resolve, by essentially having discussions before another judge of the court. It's not clear what the authority is to now order a Strategic Conference after the commencement of the hearing. That is, if the parties want to resolve the matter they can do so privately can't they?
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