Build a New South Wales chronology where a permanent stay is in prospect
MaintainedLast reviewed
Key facts
- Human involvement
- YellowClose supervision
- How AI is used
- From the documents the lawyer selects, build a dated table of complaints, surviving records, lost records and unavailable witnesses. Every row needs a document. Do not say whether a stay should be granted, and do not treat the High Court summary as the reasons.
- What the lawyer must review
- Decide whether a fair trial is still possible. Read the GLJ summary with the reasons.
- Treat the permanent stay described there as a last resort, and only in the context of s 6A.
- Do not read the guiding principles as stopping a stay application.
- Keep the file in the firm's system. ASCR r 9 and APP 11 apply.
Rules that apply
The document starts from the task name. Change it if this piece of work is different.
The work product
Forum. New South Wales. The court hearing any stay application.
Produce. A source-tagged chronology of complaints, surviving records, lost records and unavailable witnesses.
Have ready. Complaint documents; Record-holding letters; Evidence of death or unavailability; Whether the defendant is a State agency.
Example of the limit. Illustrative example: The alleged abuser died before the claim was issued, and a letter lists two surviving witnesses. The tool dates the death and the letter. It does not say the stay must fail because s 6A removed the limitation period.
Stop and hand it back when
- A row has no document.
- The tool is asked to draft the response, or to treat the summary as the reasons.
Sources for this task were checked on 2026-10-23.
Who does what
| Role | What they do |
|---|---|
| Assistance | From the documents the lawyer selects, build a dated table of complaints, surviving records, lost records and unavailable witnesses. Every row needs a document. Do not say whether a stay should be granted, and do not treat the High Court summary as the reasons. |
| Lawyer | Set the scope, supervise the work closely, verify every part relied on, resolve omissions and exceptions, and approve the exact output. |
Checklist
- Section 6A(6) preserves a permanent stay where delay has a burdensome effect so serious that a fair trial is not possible.
- In GLJ the High Court, by majority, allowed an appeal from a stay granted by the Court of Appeal. The summary says a permanent stay is a measure of last resort, evaluated in the context of s 6A, for a trial that will be necessarily unfair or so unfairly and unjustifiably oppressive as to be an abuse of process. The decision is not discretionary.
- The guiding principles say agencies may not rely on a limitation defence, and that this does not affect a stay application. They are described as binding, and as applied flexibly.
- The summary says it is not a substitute for the reasons. Do not draft the response to a stay.
Sources
- Limitation Act 1969 (NSW) s 6A · 2026-10-23
- High Court judgment summary, GLJ [2023] HCA 32 · 2026-10-23
- NSW guiding principles for agencies responding to civil claims for child abuse · 2026-10-23
Do not cite GLJ as a decision on a Victorian or Queensland stay section. The summary decides an appeal from New South Wales in the context of s 6A.
If this is used in a Supreme Court document, read Practice Note SC Gen 23. The Court's page records amendments that came into effect on 3 February 2025. The note itself was not opened, so no clause is quoted.
Records on this file stay in a firm-controlled tool. ASCR r 9 and APP 11 apply, and a breach may be notifiable under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).