Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999

A referring order for a case appraisal must—

appoint as case appraiser—

a specified case appraiser; or

a case appraiser to be selected by the parties; and

state what dispute is referred; and

include enough information about pleadings, statements of issues or other documents to inform the case appraiser of the dispute and the present stage of the proceeding between the parties; and

set a period beyond which the case appraisal may extend only with the authorisation of the parties or estimate how long the case appraisal should take to finish; and

state how the case appraiser is to be informed of the appointment; and

require the parties, if the case appraisal is not completed within 3 months of the date of the referring order, to provide a report setting out the circumstances of the matter to the registrar who may refer the matter to the court for resolution.

The order must also—

set the ADR costs or estimate the costs to the extent possible; and

state the percentage of ADR costs each party must pay; and

state to whom and by when the ADR costs must be paid.

The order may be made even if the dispute has been referred previously for a mediation.

Instead of setting or estimating the appointed case appraiser’s fee, the order may direct the parties to negotiate a fee with the appointed case appraiser.

The order must, as far as practicable, be made in the approved form.

A case appraiser must have regard to an amended pleading, including amendments made after the referring order.