Civil appeals against decisions made by a judge in the General Division of the High Court (from 1 April 2022)
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Upon the filing of Form 34 and if there are no outstanding issues relating to costs or other matters, the appeal is deemed withdrawn. If all the parties to the appeal consent to the payment of the security for costs to the appellant or the respondent (as the case may be), the appellant or the respondent (as the case may be) must file the document signifying such consent signed by the parties and in such event, the security for costs must be paid to the appellant or the respondent (as the case may be) and any solicitor’s undertaking is discharged.
If there are outstanding issues relating to costs or other matters, the appellant or any other party to the appeal may make a written request to the appellate court for directions on those issues.
If there is no consent between the parties as to the payment of the security for costs, parties may make a written request to the appellate court for directions on the disposal of the security for costs.
If costs have been awarded against you, the deposit will go towards the amount of costs that have been awarded against you.
You will receive a notice of appeal from the party who filed the appeal. The appeal will proceed by way of a rehearing on the documents filed by the parties before the lower court.
You should refer to the following table for the documents that are to be filed and served for the appeal. When you are required to file and serve these documents would depend on the certification given by the lower court concerning the grounds of decision. Please refer to Order 18 Rule 33(5) of the Rules of Court 2021 for the timelines that are applicable to your case
Written submissions | Please note that there is a prescribed page limit of 35 pages for the written submissions. The written submissions must include, in the concluding paragraphs, submissions on the appropriate costs orders to be made in the appeal. If you refer to a document in the written submissions, you should indicate where the document can be found in the case file in the proceedings in the lower court. You should provide: (a) a clear description of the document; (b) the date on which the document was electronically filed; and (c) where the document forms part of an electronic filing, the exact page in the PDF version of the electronic filing where the document may be found.
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| Appeals Information Sheet | This is to be completed using Form 19, Appendix B, Supreme Court Practice Directions 2021 and is to be filed and served along with the written submissions. |
For Order 19 Appeals
You will receive a notice of appeal from the party who filed the appeal. After that, you will receive the record of appeal, appellant’s Case (including any bundle of authorities), appellant’s core bundle of documents and appellant’s Appeals Information Sheet.
You must file the following documents within 28 days of the service of the appellant’s Case.
Respondent’s Case (including any bundle of authorities) | Please note that there is a prescribed page limit of 55 pages for the respondent’s Case.
The estimated fee for the filing of a respondent’s Case is $1,000 if the page limit is not exceeded. You will need the permission of the court to exceed the prescribed page limit. If you have such permission, the fees that will be imposed are set out at the last row of this table . (This does not include additional fees payable to the LawNet & CrimsonLogic Service Bureau.)
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Respondent’s core bundle of documents (if any) | Please note that there is a prescribed page limit of 35 pages. When preparing the core bundle of documents, please refer to the requirements set out in Paragraph 121 of the Supreme Court Practice Directions 2021. Please note that you should not exhibit duplicate documents in the respondent’s core bundle of documents if such documents are already included in the appellant’s core bundle of documents. |
| Appeals Information Sheet | This is to be completed using Form 19, Appendix B, Supreme Court Practice Directions 2021 and is to be filed and served along with the respondent’s Case |
For both Order 18 Appeals and Order 19 Appeals
You should file the relevant documents via eLitigation. If you are representing yourself, visit the LawNet & CrimsonLogic Service Bureau to file. Please ensure that the correct document code is selected for the filing of all documents on eLitigation.
You must serve the relevant documents for the appeal on the appellant within the prescribed timelines in the Rules of Court 2021. This means giving them a copy of the document in any of the ways set out in Order 7 Rule 3 of the Rules of Court 2021.
Please refer to “Points to note for Order 18 appeals and Order 19 appeals”.
For Order 18 appeals, both parties can only file one set of written submissions and both parties cannot file a further reply.
