Ever since the decision of Crosby v Kelly,[1] the Federal Court has become, in many respects, the jurisdiction du jour for defamation litigants throughout Australia. A pathway once seen as somewhat of a novel avenue for litigants to take advantage of the efficiencies of the Federal Court docket system has now become so mainstream that it has spawned a:
- ‘sub-area’ within the Federal Court’s ‘National Practice Areas’;
- dedicated Federal Court Practice Note (DEF-1); and
- regular series in the Gazette of Law and Journalism dedicated to examining and summarising the latest cases, stoushes and controversies from the jurisdiction.
But how did we get here? And how do we go there? This article seeks to both answer these questions and to proffer some views as to why a litigant may, or may not, want to seek to characterise their defamation claim as one which the Federal Court can hear.
Read list member Sanjay Schrapel's full article on Commbar Matters here
