Relief sought with respect to the assessment of costs and the effect of a costs certificate is a working out of the costs order and is treated as interlocutory for the purposes of s 101 of the Supreme Court Act 1970 (NSW), requiring leave to appeal. A costs certificate is not invalidated merely because the underlying costs order was temporarily set aside during the appellate process, provided the order is subsequently reinstated in identical terms. Where a court has determined an issue as a substantial matter in earlier proceedings, a party cannot relitigate that issue in fresh proceedings without demonstrating clear error, even if the reasoning was not determinative of the outcome in the earlier case.
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