Civil Process Act 1985

Civil Process Act 1985

This Act may be cited as the Civil Process Act 1985.

This section and section 1 shall commence on the day on which this Act receives the Royal Assent.

Except as provided in subsection (1), this Act shall commence on such day as may be fixed by proclamation.

The purpose of this Act is to expedite civil proceedings in the Supreme Court by simplifying their commencement and making that commencement more flexible and by simplifying the taking of interlocutory proceedings.

The Supreme Court Civil Procedure Act 1932 and all other enactments relating to procedure in the Supreme Court shall be read subject to this Act and the Rules of Court made pursuant to it.

Nothing in this Act applies to the procedure or practice in – criminal causes, matters, or proceedings; proceedings in bankruptcy or insolvency; proceedings on applications lodged under section 232 of the Electoral Act 2004; proceedings under Part XI of the Justices Act 1959; proceedings under – the Companies (Tasmania) Code; the Companies (Acquisition of Shares) (Tasmania) Code; or the Securities Industry (Tasmania) Code; or the Corporations Act; proceedings under the Debtors Act 1870; proceedings under – the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988; or the Asbestos-Related Diseases (Occupational Exposure) Compensation Act 2011; or appeals.

Where any enactment confers jurisdiction on the Supreme Court or a judge of that Court and prescribes procedure for its exercise that is different from the procedure prescribed by or under this Act, the latter procedure shall be deemed to be required by that enactment in lieu of the procedure prescribed by it.

Subject to sections 3 and 4, this Act shall be read and construed as if it were part of the Supreme Court Civil Procedure Act 1932.

may be made under section 197 of the Supreme Court Civil Procedure Act 1932 for the purposes of this Act, notwithstanding any want of power under that section.

In particular but without limiting the generality of subsection (1), Rules of Court made pursuant to that subsection may – substitute for a writ of summons a notice of the plaintiff's claim and call the notice a writ and make it operate as a writ; change the definition of "action"; prescribe what jurisdiction shall be exercised in court and in chambers; provide for changing the course of any proceeding before or during the proceeding; provide for modes and forms of proceedings, originating and otherwise; and provide for the lodging and filing of documents in the Registry and when those acts shall be deemed to have occurred.

The amendments effected by this section have been incorporated into the authorised version of the Supreme Court Civil Procedure Act 1932.

The Rules of the Supreme Court 1965 and any similar rules amending, or in substitution for, those rules shall be deemed to have been duly made under the Supreme Court Civil Procedure Act 1932.