Australia, June 16 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement May 16:

1. The prosecutor seeks an order that "if any expert witness is proposed to be called at the hearing by the prosecutor, a copy of each report by the witness that is relevant to the case" be served by 25 April 2025.

2. The defendant opposes that order on the grounds that:

1) The defendant will be prejudiced.

2) The defendant does not know the case it has to meet.

3) The prosecutor has not provided any evidence as to the prejudice that it may suffer if the expert report is not allowed to be served.

4) The prosecutor has failed to provide any reasons for the delay in seeking and serving the expert report.

5) The service of the expert report will adversely affect the ability of the trial to commence on 8 September 2025.

3. The prosecutor tendered an affidavit of Sarah Hedger dated 4 April 2025 which became exhibit A. The defendant tendered an affidavit of Angus McPherson dated 1 April 2025 which became exhibit 1.

Brief History of the Proceedings

4. On 19 May 2022, the incident the subject of these proceedings is alleged to have occurred.

5.On 13 May 2024, the prosecutor filed the Summons and Statement of Facts to commence these proceedings.

6. On 30 May 2024, the defendant served its Notice of Appearance.

7. On 19 June 2024, the prosecutor served the Brief of Evidence in electronic form which did not contain any expert report, nor did it contain any technical report.

8. The first directions hearing was listed on 8 July 2024. The matter has since been listed for directions on other occasions.

9. On 19 February 2025, the defendant entered a plea of not guilty. I accept that the plea was based on the evidence contained in the Brief of Evidence served by the prosecutor.

10. The matter is tentatively listed for hearing commencing on 9 September 2025 until 18 September 2025 (8 days) before me.

11. In addition to the appearances in this matter, there has been correspondence between the prosecutor and the defendant. A copy of the substantive correspondence is found in exhibit 1.

12. Both parties have provided helpful written submissions to which they spoke.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/196d634790dc8e8cf006a300)

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